


The She-Wolf and the Viper

by Alwaystomyself



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Pre - Robert's Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:48:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 55,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1782844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alwaystomyself/pseuds/Alwaystomyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was her last act of rebellion. After it, she´d promised to marry Robert and live the life set out for her, but they caught her and now she´s sent far away, to an unknown land full of snakes and sand.<br/>How is supposed to survive a Wolf in the middle of the dessert?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lyanna I

The air was dry, sizzling all around her, waiting for something, anything to happen. Lyanna Stark looked around and wolfish smile crept to her hidden face.

She felt it in her skin, in her blood and bones, the life and energy that echoed all around poured inside her like she was just an empty glass, waiting to be filled. Or maybe it was the other way around, maybe she was the one giving the energy to the world. She didn`t know, all she knew was that she was one with the world, one with nature.  
  


Delicate and calculatedly she moved from one place to another. Her whole body obeying every though her mind made. It was every bit as exhilarating as she´d dreamed it would be.  
Never had she felt this level of ecstasy, this level of freedom and ease that completely overwhelmed her in the most exquisite manner.

Silently she prayed for an endless and unstoppable fight. She asked to die at that moment, having finally tasted the rush of true emotions and real warmth in her blood.  
With that fight, Lyanna thought with a smirk, she´d finally felt alive. She prayed to the gods to let her linger in this frozen moment for eternity.

But as always, her prayers were not answered. Gods were cruel creatures, crueler even than men, and she knew this very well.  
As a child, she had spent days in the godswood, praying for her Lady Mother Lyarra to stop suffering and to die in peace. She had been 5 at the time and fully believed that the  old gods would listen to her, but in the end, weeks later, she´d heard Lyarra´s final screams loud and clear from her bedroom, half a castle away. She´d prayed twice since then, once for her brother Ned, to stop his trip to the south, to stay with them and the other for herself, when she was told she would marry Robert Baratheon.  
Needless to say, the gods’ didn´t come thru in either of those moments.

 

Lyanna felt the need to cry out in joy as she jumped over the man´s poorly executed stab. She graved him by the shoulders and used him as a ground keep to land safely behind him. She waited for him to turn, eager to see what he would do next. Expecting, begging for him to continue the fight.

Sadly for Lyanna Stark, all good things come to an end.

The man turned, and after a moment, he fell to his knees, yielding his sword.  
He was sweating and panting, his eyes wide open, waiting for his destiny, like it was something he didn´t control, like she was just executing some order that could´ve never been stopped.  
Lyanna suddenly felt disgusted by the man. She pushed him to the ground with her leg as silence fell over all the highborn Lords and Ladies watching the fight, she enjoyed the stillness of the moment for one small second. And then she struck the man´s head with her sword, and he fell exhausted to the ground.

A loud roar echoed everywhere as applause and flowers fell to her.  
She had won the fight, just as she had done the last two. She proudly bowed before the King, and waited for her chance to get out of there unnoticed.

Lyanna felt his eyes on her and turned to face him.

 _He knew_ , she realized, smiling inside, a warm feeling running through her veins, the sudden need to laugh invading her. He was the only one in that gigantic crowd of Lords and Ladies who were watching her, who knew the identity of the knight of the Laughing tree.  
Rhaegar Targaryen knew who she was.

 

***

 

A small, warm wind rushed inside the tent, making everything turn and twist. It moved around like a small cub, sniffing and messing everything up, but not more than she had.  
Sitting in the chair, she felt stone cold now, the energy from the tournament long gone, dead inside as she tried to wear her innocent girl mask, the problem was her Father wasn´t buying it.  
_Maybe Brandon will help me,_ she though, trying not to look at her older brother, _maybe Brandon will be on my side this time_.  
“What if it would´ve been another?” Her father spat to her, turning and acknowledging her for the first time since he´d walked in. He was actually angry, Lyanna noted, his face was pale and his eyes bright. He was truly mad at her.  
Lyanna looked at him not saying a word.  
“What if it was your betrothed who walked in on you? What would´ve you done then?”

“Asked him to leave and please tell everybody else no to bother her” Brandon said from the table, smiling while he poured himself some wine. Lyanna noticed how his eyes stayed cold.

Ice cold.

“This is not the time for jokes Brandon” Lord Rickard whispered angrily “your brother just caught your sister with the armor of the knight the king wants dead and with a running away bag in her hands. She was planning to run away with a man the King hates”.

_How is it that you always get to the wrong conclusion Father? Is it something you learned, or just your nature?_

She´d tried telling him the truth, but he hadn´t believe her. She´d said with a clear and calmed tone that she was the knight of the Laughing tree and he didn´t believe her. After seeing her fight in Winterfell for years, after she offered to put the armor on and even after she swore she wasn´t running away with some lowborn knight, Rickard Stark still didn´t trust his daughter.

 _Not that I would blame him_ , she though, almost smiling, but she was too hurt to smile.

He continued to talk to her like she was a child, and soon, Lyanna was lost in her fantasies, far away from the tournament and the man that stood in front of her, lecturing her about her duty as a woman when he would ever understand what it truly meant. She pictured herself in one of those cities the sailors always talked about. Different waves of smells would hit her and exotic colors and animals would surround her, making her feel lost, so wonderfully lost.

“She can´t marry Robert now” Ned´s soft voice crept inside her day dream and dragged her back to reality.  
Rickard Stark turned to his second son, the one that was more like him, the silent wolf, and listened carefully.  
Lyanna almost started to laugh.

_Everybody listens to Ned._

_Everybody should listen to Ned._

“She can´t marry Robert” Ned repeated, walking towards her, but without looking at her. He just stood beside her seat, and Lyanna understood he wasn´t defending her out of love, he was doing so because that was what his black and white honor told him to do. But Lyanna didn´t care, she held to her quiet brother´s words like she was drowning, because in a way, she was. She couldn’t take more talks about duty.  
Fuck duty, she would´ve said if she weren´t a Lady.

“She´ll run away and we´ll never see her again. It is better to have her marry someone that will treat her the way she wants”.

Rickard raised an eyebrow and suddenly smiled kindly, sadly, lovingly.

He knew Ned was right. Everybody in the room knew Ned was right.

“It´s not that simple Ned. I can´t just go and tell Storm End´s Lord that my daughter is a wild woman who will never listen or pledge to his will and who will most likely run away at the first chance she gets, and there for, I can´t marry her to him because she would most likely embarrass him in front of everyone”.

“Tell him the other truth then” Brandon said with a chuckle “tell him you saw him bed three different girls in one night and you though he offended your daughter with his drunken lust”.

_Four, dear brother, he took four girls to his bed, not three. Three was two nights ago, when he´d lost his jousting match._

The playful wind invaded the tent again, and suddenly, almost out of the blue, Lyanna realized her father and brothers were deciding her fate again, but this time she was in the room with them, and not behind the door listening like some petty spy. She could say something.

She wanted to open her mouth, to say something, to scream at them. She couldn`t.

“Dorne” said Lord Rickard after moment. “It´s Dorne were she´ll be treated the way she wants to. The North has never had an alliance with Dorne and there is no other place in Westeros were woman are treated as equally as men. A Prince of Dorne will marry your sister”.

She didn´t get say that time either, and it made her even more detached than when she was told she´d marry Lord Baratheon. She felt frozen, stuck there forever, and let them continue their plans in silence.

It didn´t matter she wouldn´t marry the Prince that ruled, she was to be sold to the Red Viper, who had three girls already and was at least ten years older than she was.  
The crow was sent that same night, and Princess Elia was approached the next morning. With a gift in hand and a smile on his face, Rickard Stark talked to the woman about all the good things that would come out of a marriage. Lyanna had the small, almost fading hope that the woman would tell her Father that Prince Oberyn wouldn´t marry a child, but it was crushed. The princess was delighted and the arraingment was made.  
The last one to be told was Robert, who surprisingly stayed silent while Ned talked to him. That same night, Lyanna found him in her bed with another girl. She almost wanted to laugh or maybe cry, she didn´t really know, but she felt too cold to any of those things. She only envied Robert for being capable of feeling something.  
She´d been sold again, just because she´d made the mistake of getting caught in her last rebellion.  
_Maybe I deserve it_ , she thought, _maybe it´s my punishment for not fulfilling my duty._

For a girl that couldn´t hear more about her duty, she often thought about it.

"It´s the Stark blood in you" her mother had told her once "you are wild, my child, but you are also honorable".


	2. Oberyn I

The day was warm and sunny, the soft spring breeze eased away the stench of the tournament and Oberyn Martel was drunk on freedom. The last remains he had left anyway.  
Running through the camp as they guards chased him, little registered on him, yet he felt everything. He heard the young girls singing and the loud voices of drunk men, he glimpsed at the small group of training knights and rushed through the tents were the different blacksmiths worked for proud and competitive Lords, who were either putting themselves on the tournament or their sons, with the purpose of winning either money or status, maybe even both.  
_Posers_ , Oberyn´s mind whispered to him, _they deserve a small lesson._  
But he kept running, he couldn’t get into a new fight, not when he hadn´t fought the last one yet.  
_Yet, it was worth it_ , he though, _the boy had been a good night, and the girl had been even better. Too bad they were brother and sister._

Oberyn located his Grace, Prince Rhaegar´s tent and rushed in, ignoring the guards and coming to an absolute stop, hearing out for the loud running stomps of the men chasing him.  
His sister Elia looked from her seat with an eyebrow raised. His niece Rhaenys laughed and clapped her hands from her mother’s knees.  
He approached the girl slowly, almost fearfully.   
“I…I´m… sorry… your grace, bu…but…bu…but some…some kn… knights were… chasing me. Plea…Please don´t kill me, I… have 10 sons and 6 daug…daughters to feed and… a hor…rible sister who makes me marry peo…people I don´t know”.

Rhaenys giggled as Elia asked for one of her many ladies in waiting to take her away. Oberyn winked to her, letting her go with the highborn ladies.  
_She doesn´t need to see this, not with everything she sees at home._  
Rhaenys went away dancing and jumping, happy as she could be.  
_Now we have to tread carefully. We don´t_   _really know what were up against._  
Elia didn´t rise to greet him, she just nodded at him, waiting for him to start. She was told a few days earlier she was with child, but with the complications during her first pregnancy, the masters’ ordered her to be very careful, for this one would be particularly complicated. It was supposed to be a secret.  
“You need to stop this” her soft and kind voice sounded tired, Oberyn didn´t know if it was because she was tired of him or because she was already getting tired from her child.  
“Stop what dear sister?” he asked walking about, messing with all of her stuff on purpose. She´d hatted it since they were a couple of small children in Sun´s Spear.

Elia frowned silently.

 _At least King´s Landing hasn´t changed that in you_ , he thought as he took a small golden dragon figurine of a table.  
But it had changed a lot in her in anyways.  
Oberyn had stood by her side as the court´s behavior and politics had slowly changed her on the first years of her marriage. She went from the direct and loving girl he´d grown up with, to a calculating and cold woman with everybody that wasn´t her family. Sometimes even with them. He`d left her soon after he realized that. He hadn`t bothered to say goodbye.  
Oberyn smiled bitterly and put the doll he had taken down. He turned around and frowned at the stranger that once had been his sister.  
She looked the same, which was all the more unsettling. Her hair was a bit shorter than he remembered, small thin lines of silver growing with her natural mahogany color, her big hazel eyes looked colder, sharper and way more tired than they had when he visited her in King´s Landing for Rhaenys third name day, and she was thinner, way thinner than a pregnant woman should be. Her dress hanged loosely, not in an unflattering way, but loosely none the less.  
_She´s dying,_ a voice said inside his head.  
_She wields power,_ a different one whispered.  
_She won´t be convinced_ , the last voice screamed.

“Have you seen your bride to be lately?” Elia asked with an innocent voice, pretending to groom herself.  
_You can try to fool me Elia, but in the end, I´ll discover whatever it is that you are hiding from me._  
_What is it you´re playing at?_  
“No” he answered with a distracted tone, he had hardly though of how the she-wolf cub would look like. His mind was more troubled with the fact that she was child, barely thirteen or something like that, not at all a woman.

Elia didn´t seem displeased with his answer.  
“She is quite lovely, I´m told. Lord Robert Baratheon of the Storm Lands, the man that she was supposed to marry instead of you, dear brother, was extremely upset with the news. He caused two different fights in one night and drank half of the wine in the tournament. Jon Arryn and  his younger brother were very displeased with his behavior. They fear no one would want to marry him now”.

The moment Elia stopped talking, Oberyn felt strangely alone. Elia´s words were the answer to a question he had never made out loud and yet asked himself almost every night.  
_You are the only one left, Oberyn. You are the only Martell who didn´t grow up to be what your Mother raised you to be._  
_You are a lost, useless child._  
Elia looked at her nails and called for a guard, she wanted to eat some olives and bread for breakfast, with grapes on the side. She behaved like he wasn´t there, and allowed him to quietly look for a good reply.

He finally settled with a clear answer, no undertone hidden.  
“The fact that she is pretty doesn´t erase that she is a child, Elia. And don´t even begin with the fact I´m being forced to marry her just because Doran wants to play the game of thrones with the filth that call themselves Lords and Ladies of Westeros”.  
_That did it._  
Elia of Dorne left her barely eaten bread on her golden plate and stood up to her full height. It wasn´t much, but it was the Elia that Oberyn was used to. The Elia Oberyn actually loved.

“There is much more than just your freedom at stake here, Oberyn. The Northerners were never conquered, inside their little winter minds they think they can rebel and get away with it. We are lucky Lady Lyanna offended her father, for your marriage to her may very well stop this kingdom from bleeding, and tearing itself apart. So, for one small moment stop thinking about yourself, and do to the Oh so hard favor Doran is asking you to do”.  
Her tone was harsh, bitter, like he was deserting her. Oberyn was trapped around her finger.  
And as usual, Elia was so right it almost hurt.  
Oberyn chuckled inside, half happy and half bitter.

“Besides” she said pausing next to him on her way out, “Lyanna Stark is on her way to her 16th name day. It´s about time she starts to do what all highborn girls are supposed to do, keep the peace you men can´t keep”.  
She went out with a proud look on her face, looking like the Queen he knew she was.

Oberyn lingered in the abandoned tent for a while longer. He looked around at the place where his sister, her perfect Husband and his little nice lived. It was fully ornamented with expensive furniture and decorations, and he counted at least three large Targaryen banners and eight small ones.  
He had the sudden urge to tear them all apart. They made him unease, like all of the dragon heads were looking at him hungrily, preparing to attack him.  
He sighed.  
_You´re going mad Oberyn. Or madder if you prefer._  
Before going out, he ate the last remains of Elia´s olives and bread. Good food is not to be wasted, his eldest always said.  
Out there, in the middle of the small city that the tents made, Oberyn took for the first time the path that lead to the Northerners tents.  
It was time he met the girl he was supposed to save the kingdom with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everybody that left Kudos and comments, and apologize again for the writing. Thank you for reading and I hope you like it.


	3. Oberyn, Elia and Eddard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooooo, thanks for reading, please comment and like, I really hope you like it.

_She was the most beautiful thing he´d seen._

_In a while._

_Her brown hair hung all around her lovely face and her laugh sounded like the soft breeze of summer._

Oberyn Martel could practically hear the thoughts coming out of Robert Baratheon´s head. His half lustful half-drunk face said it all. Even more than what Oberyn was willing to translate.

 _Gods_ , he though, _that man is truly in love with her_.

But she wasn´t in love with him.

She didn´t turn to him, nor she answered his questions, she just sat, smiling and laughing as her brothers practiced for the tournament.

Brandon and Eddard fought against each other, sadly, with a similar and blunt style. There was no sense of drama in their movements. Everything was just as it had to be, there was no thinking behind the blows they made, just an answer born out of instinct.

 _The work of the man that trained them_ , Oberyn thought.  _To them the fight is temporal, not a rush of infinity. To their minds, the fighting is just a state of the body, not an emotion._

It bothered him a bit, he had yet to meet somebody that felt like him. In a weird impulse, he had though that the Stark wolfs would find fighting more than just giving and receiving blows, but seeing them fight each other, it was clear the Northerners weren´t as inspired as he was by the freedom of fighting.

He was truly and sadly disappointed.

 

He felt both pair of eyes on him, one pair looking at him with a mix of challenge and curiosity and the other pair just staring at him, like he was something they didn´t expect to find there, piercing through him, making he feel like he didn´t belong there.

Robert Baratheon´s eyes were the angry ones.

Lyanna Stark´s were the bored ones.

A cocky smile drew itself on his face, and using this most accent and lustful voice, he asked.

“May I take Lady Lyanna for a walk?”

The anger passed from Robert´s eyes to his face. He made a loud roar and sprang forward.

_Well, at least he is dramatic about it._

***

The rumor of a fight between Lyanna Stark’s current and former betrothed had spread through the tents like wildfire.

Elia of Dorne sat in front of her brother with warm water and a clean rug trying to make him look presentable for the final banquet that night.

He didn´t say a word and just allowed her to pass the wet rug on his face as hard as she wanted while she complained in a soft and loving voice.

Even when she was scolding him, Elia always made sure to use a soft voice with Oberyn, unlike their parents had.

She was sure he didn´t even notice.

“And now Doran will have to write to the man-child that is Robert Baratheon, asking for his forgiveness, which will make him even more reluctant to leave you in the capital, with me. You see all the problems you caused for yourself just because?”

She  expected him to answer.

He never did.

He would sit and say nothing, completely out of touch with the world.

Oberyn became cold and detached when you were angry at him.

 _Part of his method of surviving childhood_ , Elia guessed.

She never quite understood why Oberyn did this. To her, their childhood in the Water Gardens had been a perfect one, but her brother always seemed uneasy when he had to talk about it.

“I did to get a reaction” Oberyn answered softly, while she passed the rug over his brows, cleaning the sweat and blood from it.

“And what did you see?” Elia asked distractedly, looking at how handsome Oberyn had become without the blood, the dirt and the sweat. She was rather proud of herself.

“Nothing” he whispered to himself than to his distracted sister.

“I saw stone cold ice, and a glimpse, just a small glimpse of longing. I saw nothing I could understand”.

***

Ned watched as Maege Mormont, the closest thing Lyanna had to a friend, picked her clothes for her.

His sister was too busy talking to her father to prepare herself for the banquet.

The small, not very pretty, but far more feminine girl messed about with the different dresses and giggled with Howland Reed and Benjen.She almost looked like a southern Lady.

But  just like when Lyanna wore dresses made of silk, Ned noticed the strong iron that laid beneath. Her eyes gleamed coldly, prepared, even if she didn´t knew it, to face whatever adversity would hit her.

She, like everyone in the tent, was a child of the north, playing dress up in the south.

“Ned, stop choosing dresses for Lya and come here, please”.

Brandon´s mockery came unexpected and he returned silently to the table were his father, brother and sister sat.

Ned Stark did everything silently.

Lyanna smiled at him and Rickard nodded.

“We ask you, because you are actually know the people involved. Oberyn Martell is going to King´s Landing to occupy his brother’s seat in the small council and Lyanna has been asked by three different powerful people to go live on the capital, and ordered by King Aerys as well, but we still don´t know if we should send her or not. She would have to go alone, and live alone in the middle of the Mad King´s court ”.

_A wolf in the middle of the rats neast? That doesn´t seem like a good idea._

 

Rickard talked always like that when he was making political plans. He talked like there wouldn´t be any real consequences to his acts. He said things about people pretending they weren´t in the room. He did this specially with his most priced bargaining chip, his lovely daughter Lyanna.

_But you can´t send her to the South. She´ll go only if she wants and she´ll behave just like she wants if you sent her alone with a group of soft, green Lords and Ladies._

_She´s wolf blooded after all._

_She´s not like me._

_And yet..._

Ned meditated his response before actually answering, like he always did.

Robert would be closer to her if she was in King´s Landing, but Jon Arryn would be there to stop his recklessness and idiotic ideas if he actually got them after that afternoon with the Red Viper. Besides, they would be in court, and if there was anything Robert wanted more than Lyanna, was to be far from the King´s court. 

_“She can decide if she wants to come for a walk Baratheon, she has a brain as far as I´m aware”_

_The fight had been swift and savage. Ned was pretty sure someone had bit the other one, but in the end because of his drunkenness and slower movements, Robert had lost, bled and screamed, and Oberyn Martell had walked away without Lyanna, but caring a smug smile on his Dornish face._

_Both of them will be safer if I agree to send her to King´s Landing, but she´ll be miserable and he´ll be hopeful._

_I don´t know which one is worst._

Ned sighed, who on earth´s hell would think he was the right one to make this decision.

Only his father, that had sent him to live with Jon Arryn to learn to make this decisions. 

He cleared his throat before speaking, like he did when he talked to Ashara Dayne or Catelyn Tully, nervous and unsure of his answer.

_I´ve never been good at this. I´m a warrior, I fight for freedom, I don´t know how to keep it._

“Send her”.

Eddard Stark saw Lyanna break and cry, he also saw her remain completely still, unbent like Iron.


	4. Lyanna II

The trip to the capital had been Lyanna´s worst experience so far. Never mind the first time she bled and all of the castle knew about it in less than an hour, the time she fell to the cold river was a blast compared to this. She´d rather listen the Maester talk about the seven for three days straight if it avoided traveling with court.

They had been on the road for little more than a month and even though everybody told her King´s Landing was barely a few miles away, she was beginning to doubt if they´d ever actually get to the capital.

She sighed, as she kept ridding, thinking of when things weren´t so bad.

It all started the day she left.

Goodbyes were said, tears were shed and even Brandon had been serious that day.

“If anything happens, if you get scared, bored or lonely, send me a letter. I´ll come to get you even if it mean having to fight Ned, dad and Benjen. Don´t forget it, just send me the letter”.

He was pleading her to do it.

“I will” she had said, a soft smile, kept only for her family, on her lips.

_I´ll just never send it._

She´d been too busy longing for her family at first to notice the things around her. But around the fifth day she began to notice some things.

She felt the distrusting eyes and the angry ones, blaming her for the problems Elia had with her pregnancy, even if she had absolutely nothing to do with it.

All through their time on the road, Lyanna listened to the small talk people made around her and pretended to take interest in it.

She mostly kept Cersei Lannisters company, not for her liking of the older girl, but because she seemed to like the sound of her own voice and that made staying silent far more easy.

And every silent night, she would arrange her bed to look like someone was sleeping on it and ran away to practice with the flat sword she had stolen from Harrenhals armory.

She´d swing it between the trees and jump suddenly, pretending she was still at the tournament, fighting and not dismounting lords. She always laughed in the end, thinking about how crazy she would seem to anyone who watched her.

Until she asked him, and he said that he had never seen somebody so wonderfully wild.

_You are a liar prince Rhaegar, but your lies make me feel alive._

He started to show her knew techniques on the seventh night after she´d caught him watching her and they began to spar on the eleventh. Their laughs and cries would fill the small clearings, making her feel like she was in another universe, away from her duties and his status.Finally, when morning was upon them, he would talk to her about his life. She was always bitter after it.

 _You don´t understand_ , she wanted to tell him, _you don´t comprehend what it is that I long for_.

_Yet I listen to you every night._

She would only talk to him when it was night time, never in the day. She would never address him or his family and rarely talked about them to anybody.

 _It´s a secret_ , she though every night she went to sleep, _our uncorrupted heaven._

***

They had finally arrived to the Gods forsaken capital and Lyanna couldn´t feel more out of place. She was sitting with Cersei in her Father´s solar.

Tywin Lannister was on a small council meeting, like he always did, and Lyanna wondered if he´d been as absent in Casterly Rock as he was here.

_Probably._

_That explains the over achieving daughter_.

Cersei was talking about her options for a husband, again.

“Why do you crave power so much?” the question came out before she could stop it.

The beautiful gold haired girls turned to look at her like she was talking to a child.

“Because, power is the only thing that sets you free”.

_Liar. You clearly know nothing of freedom, only what has been described to you by your Lady Mother and your Maester._

A soft knock on the door stopped Lyanna from answering.

“Ser Jaime wishes to see you, Lady Lannister”.

***

“What is it that you plan to wear for the party, my lady?” asked one of the two maidens she had to help her. One was young and had kind brown eyes and hair, the other was older and had harsh black eyes.

_Breeches and an armour along with my favorite sword._

“A pale blue greyish dress” she answered, the dress had a particular sewing style that only excited in the north and yet it managed to look like a southern dress.

It had been her father´s last gift. Special for this kind of occasion.

_Enchant the court._

_Make your betrothed love you._

_Fulfil your duty._

_Forget about freedom._

The poor girl looked lost looking at Lyanna´s dresses.

“They´re all blue greyish, my lady”.

_Call me Lyanna, please._

“The darker one” she pointed, still standing naked in the middle of the room, they had just bathed and perfumed her, washed he hair, scrubbed till she was red and then they had asked about her bruises, the told them they were from ridding.

“The one with the long sleeves”.

“It´s very pretty, my lady” said the older woman in a cold tone, just on the verge of being insolent. Lyanna liked her the best.

***

 

The memory slowly invaded her mind. The blue winter roses landing on her lap, tossed like scraps to a dog, the cold silence that surrounded her and the sudden loneliness that had filled her.

She remembered far too well the false smile Elia of Dorne wore, as she handed her the crown, along with the intense stare Rhaegar.

Everything was so vivid, she seemed to re live the memory instead of just watching happen again. She hated what it meant.

She hated what it had done to her and she hated that it was the real reason Rickard had sent her south. “There´s a chance for you to become the new king´s mistress. You shouldn´t waste it”.

His eyes had been sad and bitter when he said it, clearly disagreeing with the calculating sound of his words, and yet, Lyanna couldn´t help but wonder.

_When, Oh Dear Father, did you become a Lord of the South?_

_In what moment you forgot that Honor is what keeps us clean and worthy of the Gods?_

_Would you despise me if I became a Lady of the South?_

The looks men gave Cersei Lannister were so transparently lustful that made Lyanna wonder if Tywin Lannister had actually planned for her to wear that dress. Everything is planned here, with double meanings and based on lies and distrust.

_How is a She-wolf supposed to survive a pit of Snakes?_

It was her silent prayer. Every time she felt like she was grasping some form of control, she remebered that it was pretending to be in control was what landed her in this situation.

Although, she wasn´t the fairest, she was still looked at, but far less than Cersei Lannister or even Ashara Dayne.

The eyes on her were curious, all of them wondering exactly why had the crown prince bothered to welcome her to court with such gift, what she had done to make the soon to be Queen give up what was hers by right.

_Nothing but defend an innocent boy who became my friend._

Ragnar had once told her about how he found his first wife, the one who gave him his “kissed by the fire” daughter.

“I saved her life, and in return, she gave me another”.

_Gods, how I miss him._

Lyanna stood up in the middle of the banquet and left to feel the “cold” air of the night.

It all overwhelmed her. The big dress with the sleeves that reached the ground and made her trip, the complicated braid her hair was in that pulled her brown hair and made her head ache, the loud music, so unlike Rhaegar´s soft and elegant one.

And above all, the loud drunkenness of the court.

She stood outside for a second before she turned to face him.

“Are you bored, my lady?”

“No Ser, I´m just tired”.

“I hope not too tired. My sister mentioned you liked to watch fights and I thought I had a place to show you?”

“Where?”

“In the pit of King´s Landing, where men still fight to make a decent living”.

The white of his cape lead her through the castle and out of it.

She didn´t feel less trapped outside of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hoped you liked this one. It was a bit of a hard one and I´m still not sure of how it turned out.  
> I hope you liked it, please commet and thank you for reading.


	5. Oberyn III

_She fights._

The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced she was wasting her time with Rhaegar.

_I should be fighting with her, not that skinny and weak-looking dragon._

It was a lie and he knew it.

Rhaegar had won the Harrenhal tournament for a reason- even if Barristan Selmy allowed him to win-. But he was still angry about it.

It just wasn´t fair.

He´d always wanted to spar with a Northerner, and she had such a different style from her brothers he often wondered where she´d gotten it from. Fighting her would be a challenger.

But that wasn´t all.

She was now apparently good friends with Jaime Lannister and from what he had gathered, they escaped at least once every five day at night.

_Wonder where?_

She couldn´t possibly be fucking him. The only thing that boy loved more than his sister was himself and the She-wolf would never fuck a man like that.

She was way too smart for him.

It still made him mad, though, not knowing what secret the Lannister had with the She-wolf.

 

As always happened, Elia had noticed his unusual bad temper.

She brought it up when they were having lunch on her balcony.

“What is it now?” she asked, while stroking her swollen belly. She talked to him like he was a child, and in this very moment he discovered he didn´t mind it at all.  She was using her “I´ll solve all of your problems” voice. So he didn´t hesitate to tell her.

“Your husband passed the last month and a half sparing with the She-wolf and know the Lannister boy in your guard goes away with her every other night, gods know where”.

She laughed at him with actual joy and it took her about a minute to calm down.

“Why do you even care dear brother?”

He didn’t answer. He knew where she was going. He instead decided to turn this conversation towards her husband.

“You know his still meets her, right? Every day she takes a stroll down the far gardens and he is waiting for her. He talks to her for about an hour, because she barely talks, probably bored out of her mind with him, then they part ways, he always looking way too pleased with himself for my liking”.

“Then there is a problem, my sweet brother. Rhaegar has the power of making almost every woman fall in love with him, even if it is for a short period of time. It seems your little cub is now the focus of his attentions and he is surely trying to steal her heart. Be careful Oberyn, or you might find yourself without a betrothed ”.

She shouldn´t have said that.

One more word and he would kill him, for Elia and for the She-wolf.

There was a small silence, and the Elia smirked like Doran did, completely different from how he smirked.

“Have you been stalking her Oberyn?”

_No, I´ve just watched her for entire days and still haven´t said an actual word to her._

_“No”._

“Really?”

Elia was serious now, making Oberyn even more ashamed. He sighed loudly, and feeling like he was just a boy about to lose his virginity, all of his confidence and experience taken away.

“I had problems sleeping, so I took a stroll and saw her leaving her tent. I followed her to a clearing where she started to practice alone and when I was about to interrupt her, Rhaegar appeared and she started fighting him”.

He left out the part about how she laughed and cried out loud like a little girl, or how later they sat, talking nonsense about his childhood and how she looked bored out of her mind to him.  

  “They did it until we arrived here, then barely just a few days, I caught her escaping with Jaime fucking Lannister”.

Elia sighed, still smiling.

“Talk to her, she is going to marry you at some point”.

Oberyn smiled.

   _How about no._

 

_**_ _*_

 

 

He kind of followed Elia´s advice.

He followed Jaime Lannister and Lyanna through the dirty streets and silent alleys until he realized where they were going. It all made sense now, from the costumes- he wasn´t wearing nor his armour nor his cape and she was dressed in breeches and a large cape.

_From where did he got the idea of taking her to a fight ring?_

The answer came shortly.

This was Rhaegar´s doing.

He went into the small house that was used as the cover for the illegal fighting pit.

It smelled of sweat and wine, the dim lights gave it the look of a sacred place and the few men that sat in the tables barely lifted their eyes from their drinks.

A small man approached him and extended his hand, looking at him with his small, ratty eyes.

Oberyn paid him with the a few golden dragons.

“You never saw me here”.

“Of course, my Lord”.

_Tricky little rat man._

He was lead down a small group of stairs and entered a well-lit and spacious room. There was a literal pit where one fighter waited for his competition.

Oberyn smelled the same sweat as before, but now it was mixed with blood and dirt and the air had just a hint of cheap wine.

He liked way too much this place.

He found the Lannister boy and went to stand next to him, smiling cockily.

“Since when do you attend illegal fighting rings?”

“Since when do you care what I do?”

_Since you started to steal the She-wolf for Rhaegar._

It was too late when he realized she wasn´t with him.

He turned, looking for her and the Lannister boy hold back a laugh. He pointed towards the center of the pit, where the ratty man stood with the fighter.

“Who will challenge our undefeated winner?” he roared while Oberyn watched with disbelieving eyes.

He ´d noticed her hair was shorter, but now she was wearing it tied in a way that made it men short. She was so skinny and small she passed for a young boy.  

At his side, Jaime Lannister just smirked.

A man came forward. He was quite large, half naked a fully drunk. He jumped to the pit and roared like a wild animal.

“NO SMALL MOUSE WILL DEFEAT ROY. TONIGHT, BRANDON OF THE NORTH, YOU DIE”.

_So this one likes to scream things._

_Did he just called her Brandon?_

“She wanted to go with Eddard, but I told her it sounded way too high-born and would make people ask things”, Lannister informed him, not taking his eyes from the pit.

He didn´t seem worried at all. He looked eager to watch, but he showed no concern for the six and ten girl that was going to fight a man both of them would have problems with.

Oberyn could barely contain his nervousness. What if she wasn´t strong or fast enough? What if this Roy crushed her skull like it was ripped fruit?

He leaned forward and chanted.

_You´ve seen her fight._

_She is very good._

 

She was indeed very good.

Roy launched himself towards her and she quickly moved and deliver what looked like a strong blow with her elbow to the back of his head.

It took him a few moments to attack again and he managed to throw Lyanna to his feet.

“STAY THERE LITTLE BOY, NICE ROY WILL BE DONE WITH YOU IN JUST A SECOND”.

He was going to hit her when she strangled her feet around his and used his momentum to make him fall.

She stood up and walked around him, sweat pouring down her brow.

He stood up again.

Lyanna just smiled.

The man was complaining and groaning, making random attacks that usually cost him much more than what he gained.

Oberyn was in a daze.

She moved like a carefully, calculatedly and yet naturally. Compared to this, her fights with Rhaegar seemed stiff and awkward.

There was not a thing she was faking.

 

Silence fell on the room as the man screamed a last time.

“I YIELD”.

A loud roar followed him and Oberyn saw Jaime Lannister jump up and down, like a small kid on his name day.

His golden curls moved up and down and his usual mocking and prideful voice screamed with joy for Lyanna.

_Oh Gods._

 

The ratty man came back smiling, and lifting Lyanna´s hand.

“WHO DARES TO FIGHT OUR WINNING CHAMPION NOW?”

Silence fell again, everyone turning as quiet as corpses.

The cocky smile that preceded all of his stupid decisions crept on his face.

He lifted his hand and left his clothes to Jaime.

“I dare” he said in his normal voice, though it resonated like he was screaming at the top of his lungs.

He saw her surprised eyes and grinned even more.

 _Let´s fight._   

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I changed the name to the characters Pov. It was bugging me a lot, I don´t really know why.  
> Please comment and thanks for reading!!


	6. Lyanna III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating, I hope you like it and please comment!!  
> Thanks for reading

There were moments in her life that she knew she was going to remember forever. She just knew it, before they even happened, that no matter what occurred in the next seconds, she would always be able to return to them.

As Oberyn Martell stepped down and into the ring, half naked, all of his, Lyanna felt her blood boiling.

He was smirking, in a childish and insolent way.

Oh, I´m going to remember beating up your stuck up ass.

His eyes seemed to know what she was thinking, and grinned at her.

She couldn´t help but notice how attractive he looked. He throws himself at her and tries to punch her in the face.

_Let´s fight Viper._

 

He throws himself at her and tries to punch her in the face. Lyanna takes his arms and elbows him in the face as strong as she can. He barely stumbles back, turns and tries to throw her to the ground with his legs.

There is less than a fraction of second between those two actions.

Lyanna jumps and lands on her knees, suddenly panting.

 _He may not be that strong_ , she wishes, _he may not be fast._

She has seen him fight.

She knows it´s bullshit.

They start to circle each other, both of them watching with hungry eyes, barely noticing that everything has gone quiet.

He is the first one to land a blow.

It´s his elbow to her face, and it hurts like hell. But it doesn´t break her nose and she has the feeling that he is holding back.

That does it. If she was having some doubt about fighting him, it was gone, erased from existence and banished to one of those pits in hell the Septon always seemed to be talking about.

 _Breath softly_ , Ragnar had laughed from above her sitting and watching her while eating a stolen apple, _be still pup. Fighting isn´t about being a raging storm, it´s about being free, like my people are. Like your people were._

_I´m free, she whispered, I´m free as I´ll ever be._

And then they started to dance.

It was the only way she could describe it. His body answered to hers in a way that no other had. It was more thrilling than fighting the lowborn men and far more elegant that fighting the Lords at the tournament.

Every move she made was answered swiftly and naturally, as if rehearsed. Every blow she threw landed were it was supposed, but it didn´t seem to hurt him, so she decided to move closer. Now his face was always near her, his hot fast breaths always on the back of her neck, his manly, exotic smell lingering on her skin every time he touched her and finally his eyes, burning deep inside hers every time she looked at them.

She began to lose herself in the feeling, in his closeness and in his sent.

But his movements started to change, from trying to hit her he went to trying to trap her, to hold her beneath his body. He did it softly though, not the kind of angry and childish way Brandon and Benjen used to do it when they wrestled, in his touch and movements she felt an urge, a need for her to do as he asked.

She wanted to give in, she wanted nothing more baldy than just to let him hold her.

But she was also scared.

He was facing her when she tried to kick him and that broke the spell.

Turning again, he did the same move he had done in the beginning of the fight, but this time Lyanna wasn´t able to jump. She fell hard and rolled over.

When she stood in front of him she knew exactly why everyone was screaming.

They saw her stand in the middle of the ring, her hair falling curly and prettily on her back, they noticed the breast the bigger shirt tried to hide and saw the girlish features they though were just a sing on youth.

She blinked, trying to think and when she opened her eyes, four of the men she knew were rapists were down on the ring, with her and Oberyn and hell had broken loose in the illegal fighting ring.

 _This is what happens when you mix yourself with the lowest of the low Lyanna_ , she could almost hear her mother´s voice.

 

 

 

The next morning was warm and soft.

Lyanna´s eyes opened just when her younger maid knocked softly on her wooden door. She remained in silence, not really wanting to get out of bed and for a second she thought everything from last nigh had been her imagination, just a stragen dream.

But her swore legs and bandages told otherwise.

_I´ll kill him. First I´ll find him and then I´ll kill him._

She remembered stumbling from the small house to the Red Keep with Jaime and Oberyn helping her, one laughing and the other one dead serious, _just like Brandon and Ned._

The next thing in her mind was Jaime´s back turned on her, his laugh still lingering in the room and Oberyn´s brown eyes burning on her skin.

She had blushed, like if she were a thirteen year old girl, receiving her first kiss.

He had taken his hand in his and watched her purple swelling knuckles.

“I have powder for the color” she´d mumbled softly, watching the new man that sat in front of her.

She was amazed by the many faces of Oberyn Martell. She had watched from afar the loud and loving brother and seen up close the fighter, but the quiet healer was new to her.

Lyanna had secretly pried herself on knowing her betrothed, even if she´d never actually talked to him, but now she realized she was wrong.

_He´s a stranger._

He´d given her a goblet with wine while sitting in front of her bed.

“I think you pulled some of your fingers and if I don´t set the, straight, you´ll lose the use of the hand. Besides it will swell even more and I really don´t think that Cersei Lannisters powder can stop that. It´ll hurt, so drink if you think it´ll help”.

She had refused and instead preferred to watch him gulp the wine.

“It´s not the first time I pull fingers, Lord Oberyn”.

He took her hand softly and looked in her eyes while setting them straight.

Surprisingly it hadn´t hurt.

Half bussed by the fight, Lyanna began to talk without thinking.

“How did you know that that wasn´t my powder?”

He didn´t even wait to answer.

_Almost like a relfex._

“Because you don´t need it to look beautiful”

She´d smile soflty. It was the first time she was called pretty by someone that wasn´t somehow related to her. She was about to answer him when she remembered he´d probably called thousands beautiful.

_Idiot._

“Why didn´t you talk to me before?” Her tone was harsh now, like she was scolding him.

He´d closed his eyes and sighed. Then he had leaned down to her, half-drunk from the wine and half dumb from the fight, and pressed his lips hungrily to hers.

Needless to say, she had responded.

_First I´ll find him, then I´ll beat him and after I´ll kill him._

_But before, I´ll eat breakfast._

“M´lady” the girl was almost trembling, she was holding a scroll between her hands “the Maester said to give you this, it´s a letter from…”

Lyanna jumped from her bed to the girl, who looked like she was about to faint.

“Brandon”, she said between giggles of joy.

“Brandon is coming, he wants to take me back to Winterfell”.


	7. Oberyn IV

Rhaegar paced from one side of the chamber to the other. The pictures of dragons watched him walk in circles, their shining eyes seemingly following him everywhere he went. The room was far too warm and the fire crackled almost too loudly for his liking. There was only one chair and in every corner there was a brazier full of red embers.

He was sleepy, having been woken from his sleep by a member of the King´s Guard, his silver hair was in a messy braid that Rhaenys had made while Elia was with the Maester. He hadn’t bothered to unbraid his hair when he was going to sleep, and to be fully honest he kind of liked it.

He finally came to a halt in front of the big fire place and started to play with his obsidian ring.

Once again, the prophecy began to repeat in his head.

His father´s voice startled him. Once so confident and serene, he now sounded unsteady and scared. Rhaegar listened to him without turning, he knew he was repeating himself as always  "Bring me Fire". He couldn't bear listening to his voice and watching him at the same time, not when it was the same man that had rocked him on his knee when he was just a child.

“I see now you come when I call. Have you finally decided that I'm worthy of your presence, prince Rhaegar? Or was it my note that made you come?”

He didn´t answer. He didn't want to.

Aerys didn't seem to mind. He passed right next to Rhaegar and sat himself on the chair, that was far too close to the fire, his bare feet almost touching the flames.

 _He should be careful or he'll burn himself_.

Aerys started to drink, his mad violet eyes fixed upon the flames as if he was seeing the future on them. They sparkled, just like they did when he was young, now his violet eyes seemed dead and dull, gates to a shell instead of a man. He began to whisper and his voice sounded like he had before going crazy, the high pitch gone, replaced by a cool and steady low tone.

His gaze moved from the flames to the prince and his voice became just a little bit louder.

“You know the song, son, and you know it´s your job. You´re fire, and the Stark she-wolf is ice. What´s taking so long? Every day I see her in court, and she isn't pregnant. You NEED to bed her, against her will if you must. Make her bear the third head. The dragon has three heads, and you only have two. She'll give you third and the prophecy shall be fulfilled. It needs to be fulfilled, for all of our sakes.”

_I speak to her every day Father. I´ll tell her of the prophecy and she'll be willing to bear the third head. She'll be honored._

Rhaegar watched his father before speaking out loud, not an ounce of doubt in his voice.

“It´ll be done soon, my King”.

***

He was panting, he was tired and she wasn't giving in.

“Come on Lyanna, even you'll have to admit I won the last one”.

She smirked and laughed.

“Who was on the ground?” she asked him, innocently.

_I was on the ground because you were straddling me, and I didn't want you to feel me hard._

_Yet._

“Besides,” she said drinking some wine of wineskin he'd brought, and he hated how much he loved that sight. “You are known for cheating, Viper.”

He launched himself in response and in just a few seconds, they were fighting like they´d never stopped.

The catacombs were the best place to train with her. No one ever went there, and the darkness and silence made it intimate. Besides, Lyanna seemed to love the cold. She had practically leapt for joy when he had proposed they train together there, and Oberyn had the suspicion it was because he brother was coming in a bit more than a month, and she wanted to be ready for him.

It had made him a little jealous, but Elia had laughed it off and told him to grow up.

He'd wanted to tell her to tell her she needed to be more of a child.

He won their last bout and grinned smugly as they made their way through the dark tunnels. He could feel her warm body near him, could hear her panting and saw the shadow of her frame painted against the skulls and walls.

They walked silently, until they arrived to the trap door and she leapt out to one of the less used courtyards.

She didn’t bother hold up the door for him, just as he didn't hold it up for her. But she waited for him and he almost couldn’t stand the sight of her. Her brown hair was tangled, her braid almost undone, her grey eyes sparkling, her cheeks flushed and her lips curled in a smile he liked to think was only for him.

He began to hoist himself up before a better idea came to mind. Oberyn stretched out his arm for her, and she took his hand by instinct. He grabbed her tightly and yanked her back in again. They both fell to the ground and he laughed as she sighed loudly, standing up as soon as she got her bearings.

“Really Oberyn? How old are you again?”

He stood with a smile, watching her step closer to him and look him right in the eyes, her steely grey ones fixing up on his dark ones.

_Gods be damned if I don´t kiss her._

He kisses her softly, and warmth slowly began to spread through his body. He kept his mouth sealed, not wanting to deepen the kiss, but as she moved forward, crushing him to the wall, one hand on his chest, the other one on the back of his head, he caved in. Opening his mouth, he felt her tongue immediately invade, taking the advantage he’d provided. She was inexperienced, he could tell, but she´s still a better kisser than most of the women he´s kissed. She´s fresh and free, her lips soft and rough on his, not bothering to hide her desire for him.

_Gods._

His hands came to rest on her waist for a few seconds, until she moved her hands to his chest, pulling herself away as though on the verge of breaking their kiss.

_I won't stop kissing you, even if it kills me._

On a bold gamble, he slides his hands quickly to her hips, dangerously closed to her rear. She shifts a little, but doesn´t stop. He lifted her up and turned them both, pressing her to the wall with his body trapping her there neatly.

_You're mine now._

He lowered her slowly to the ground and her arms immediately circled around his neck as she whimpered softly. He chuckled against her lips.

She tugged at his shirt impatiently, and somewhere deep inside him, a part of him that isn´t listening to every sound and paying attention to her every need, he thinks it´s the first time a virgin has ever behaved like this with him. He was on the verge of stripping off his shirt when he caught the sound of steps above them.

_Damned morning patrols._

“Time to stop, darling.”

She laughed and let him go as he rested his forehead against hers.

“But not for long.” she responded, smiling at him.

They go their separate ways and Oberyn returned to his chamber to see his usual warm bath still awaiting him, barely warm for the delay. He quickly stripped and slid in, cleaning himself meticulously with a grin on his face. As he remembered the kisses and moans issued from her lips, he began to wonder where she had learned such sounds and gestures.

 _She didn't learn them, they're natural_ , a part of him says.

 _Of course, neither Rhaegar Targaryen or Robert Baratheon have anything to do with it_ , his pessimistic part whispers.

_Still, it´s not like you´ve never been with a woman before._

His smile didn’t fade as he dressed himself, her face a constant fixture in her mind, and it was strongly reminiscent of the first time he’d fell in love, with a mercenary woman who was over twenty years older than him.

_She had more muscles than I did, and probably a deeper voice._

He didn’t run to see Elia, but he made a very quick trip of the long halls. He burst into her chamber, ignoring his uncle and Ser Arthur on the way.

He froze in the doorway, the words he wanted to say never making it past his lips.

Elia sat, rocking a sleepy Rhaenys on her lap, tears falling from her big brown eyes. She looked up at him, her gaze condemning, angry, screaming at him without her opening her mouth.

“Would you care to tell me why my husband is locked up with the high septon, the king, and your whore of a betrothed?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, let me thank wobormok797 for correcting this chapter and making it far better than it was when I sent it to her. Second, to all the people that commented on this story, you probably saw that I´m answering the comments now, that was because until a few hours ago, I didn´t know how to do it properly. Sorry about that.  
> Finally, thanks for reading, please comment and I hope you liked this chapter.


	8. Lyanna IV

She sat on the bed, waiting for him with the new Crown of roses Rhaegar had given her on her hands. Small drops of blood trailed down her hands and stained her dress, giving it a dark reddish color.

She liked the silence around her much more than Rhaegar´s voice. Every time he came to her room, he began to talk nonstop. Truth be told, even if she was angry at Rhaegar, she still enjoyed his conversation. He once told her why like why he didn´t like carrots or why he´d had a pet snake, but wouldn´t allow his children to have one, mostly though, he talked about his song of ice and fire and his Prince that was promised.

_Where you mad when we first spoke Rhaegar? Did you plan this all along and just pretended to like me because you think I´m the ice of your prophecy?_

She already knew the answer, even if he didn´t.

Lyanna walked over to one of the tables and washed her hands on the water for drinking. It was her way of protesting, starving herself until Rhaegar let her go.

She went to the mirror of the room and looked at herself.

Bags under her eyes, considerably skinnier than the day Rhaegar brought her there, pale and weak looking and her brown hair in a poorly made braid.

She looked more like one of the street beggars from King´s Landing than a newly wedded woman.

The ceremony had been in that same tower, with Jon Connington as witness. Lyanna hadn´t disliked the man when she first met him at court, but on that morning, she had hated the love he felt for the Prince.

“Shouldn´t you be preventing your friend from doing idiotic things instead of helping him?” she´d asked him bitterly.

He hadn´t answered.

In the wedding, the King had delivered her and she still felt his tight grip on her arm again. The bruises were beginning to change their color and fade, but the still hurt. Rhaegar had been waiting for her and he looked dashing as ever. She had been pretty too, not that she´d actually wanted to be pretty, she wore a long and silky navy blue gown that made her eyes change from morning grey to a darker almost green color.

The ceremony, with the septon shaking and sweating like a pig, had been short and after it was done, she had been escorted on sword point to the current chamber she was in and Rhaegar had been waiting for her.

She stood there as he approached her and wondered if he would dare. When he was close enough, she got the knife from her thigh and looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

“Are you really going try to do that, dragon?”

He hadn´t and that made their marriage unconsummated and there was a chance she could claim it void. But Lyanna couldn´t stop thinking about Elia and her children during the wedding. She wondered if she knew of Rhaegar´s prophecy and what would happen to her and her family.

_Will her babe be born a bastard or will Rhaegar claim us both as wives and re start the Targaryen tradition of polygamy?_

_I´ll ask him the next time I see him, she decided, it´s been a while since our last screaming contest._

Lyanna knew she couldn´t keep threatening Rhaegar with violence, she just hoped Rhaegar would come to his senses before that and allow her to go with Brandon when he arrived.

_Brandon if you get here soon, don´t do anything stupid. Just shut up and take me away, nobody needs a war over this._

It was a fear she´d began to have the moment she´d been escorted to the septon. Her father would be angry, Brandon, who was already on his way, would be furious and his hot temper wasn´t one for political talk.

Lyanna stood near the closed windows and wondered for the tenth time in that hour what was going on outside the four walls that kept her trapped, after a few depressing minutes, she went to sit on the bed and began to stare at the closed windows. It was the middle of the day and at this moment everybody would be outside, walking or sitting on the gardens, enjoying the sunlight and the fresh air. Instead of hearing laughter mixed with birds and the sea, Lyanna heard only silence and death.

For a moment, she fancied herself outside, eating oranges (she quite liked them, even if she´d just tried them for the first time less than three days ago) and laying down in the grass with Oberyn. She tried to push him away from her thoughts, but even as she focused in the un-washables stains of mud on her dress, product of her running around on the catacombs, he still came to her mind. She kept seeing the way he grinned cockily and how his eyes wouldn´t drift from her face when he spoke to her, no matter how revealing her clothes were.

_Where are you stupid? Why haven´t you come to get me?_

_Not that I need you to rescue me._

Lyanna sighed loudly while she waited for him to come. He arrives suddenly, entering the room like he owned it, his white cloak matching his newly cleaned armour and Lyanna wonders why how can he act this way when he is supposed to be meeting her in secret.

_He could never keep a secret Lyanna, that is why he told you about his sister in the first place._

“What happened to you wolf?” he asks, as if they´re small talking on the courtyard.

_My husband._

“I kept having nightmares about you, they screwed up my appetite” she answers, smiling for the first time in days.

He sits, instead of stand next to the door and pours himself some wine. She watches him drink and waits for him to speak.

“The official version is that both you and Princes Elia are sick, and you won´t let anybody see you while she allows everybody to visit her. My dear sister has taken a liking in her company and usually has either lunch or breakfast with her, I usually have to stand away from them and just watch them eat, it´s better than having to watch Aery´s eat his burned food”.

Lyanna smiles softly at him and breathes in before talking.

“I need to ask you for a favor”.

“What do you need now, little wolf?”

“I need you to deliver a letter to from me, lion cub”.

He chuckles.

“Why?”

_To prevent  war, stupid._

He sighs loudly, the smiles to her and finishes all her wine.

“When?”

“Tonight”.

The letter is short and precise, she wrote it last night. It asks him to write to her brother and to her father. It apologizes for not trying it sooner and it taunts him about their next fight. She even sings it whit an “ _I really, really like you”_.

_I´m a schemer_ , she thinks that night, while lying alone on her bed.

_Wouldn´t father be proud?_

Next morning is sunny, she can tell because of the light that slips passed the curtains and the way he is smiling, like he rules the world. She smiles back at him and wonders if in another world, she could´ve loved him.

_Probably._

“Oberyn told me to give you this”.

Jaime delivers her a small paper and leaves her with a small bag, a soft chuckle and grin worthy of Oberyn. It´s his silent way of saying goodbye. After this he won´t come to visit her. It´s far too dangerous. She looks at the bag and wonders why Oberyn sent her a bit flower tansy, mint, wormwood, a spoon of honey, and a few drops of pennyroyal. There´s also a recipe with how much to use of everything.

_Lyanna:_

_I hope you are happy fucking my sister´s husband._

_Please don´t send the Lannister kitten to me. I actually don´t like to see the men you fucked, it makes me even more sick than thinking of you._

_Who would´ve thought the honorable Stark She-wolf was such a bitch?_

_Guess I should´ve known it was just an act. You were good at it, I´ll give you that. But in the end, you are just like all the vapid shallow Ladies on court._

_Before I end this letter to your little errand boy, I send you the ingredients for making Moon tea._

_Have the decency of not having children with a married man._

_Don´t ever write to me._

 

 

A small tear rolls down her cheek as she seats alone, looked up in a cell that resembles a room.

_Please Brandon, please come get me out._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry but I´m going out of town for a few days and had to write this quickly and I apologize if it has too many mistakes. Thanks for reading and please comment.  
> I hope you like it.


	9. Lyanna and Rhaegar

As dawn broke, she lay awake in bed. She hadn't slept or eaten in days, counting, cheking and checking again. The wait was consuming her and she looked now more alike a little child than a grown woman.

She hadn´t even noticed.

_He should be here._

She heard confident, heavy footsteps outside, signs of a man who didn't sing beautiful songs and read books about ancient prophecies. A harsh man a stranger, a different man from the prince.

_Finally._

Lyanna smiled as the door opened, and then her heart fell, fear overtook her features, as she saw him.

 _Idiot,_ she reminded herself, _you're all alone. You can't trust anyone but your pack._

She quickly did everything she was ordered to do, shaking, and dressed in a blue gown that Rhaegar had brought her. It was espected of her. She braided her hair as they left the room and finished tying all the dresses knots when they reached the stairs.

The guard was silent and held her firmly by one arm. She chuckled inwardly, recalling how Aerys had held onto her. Stupid men grip the same. Lyanna let her smile out when the guard wasn't looking. She couldn't help it, she was full of elation at the thought of her imminent freedom, but giggling was out of the question.A smile would have to do.

_Brandon is here._

As they walked down the hall, Lyanna's pace began to quicken. The guard didn't notice, and she began to fantasize about fresh air and the feel of the sun on her skin. She forgot everything but the memory of those sensations, and allowed her mind to get drunk on them.

She was forced simply to remember. The man steered her away from the sun, pushing her around in the darkness and chill of stone halls. She wondered if this was a new form of torture.

The path they walked was empty and silent, and Lyanna was instantly reminded of Winterfell on the day her engagement was announced. Brandon had been with Barbey that same morning, and when Lyanna looked at him, his expression was as grim as if he'd been forced to join the Night's Watch. She'd smiled innocently at him, until her name was called by her father. After that, she had felt cold all over. She'd been detached for weeks before Brandon had noticed. He'd sat on her bed and asked her what was wrong.

She'd just smiled sadly at him.

Lyanna tred silently, remembering everything she could about her family. The way her father had smiled, and how Benjen snorted when he laughed too hard. She remembered the softness of Lady Lyarra's eyes, the look that had passed down to Ned. She recalled all the things she´d missed from them.

Before they entered the room, her knees were suddenly kicked out from under her. Her hands were chained and that was the last she saw before she was blindfolded, though she felt the rope being secured around her waist. The next thing that happened was a lifting sensation as she was tossed over the man's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and he shoved open the doors with a quiet grunt before entering the throne room.

All Lyanna could hear was the crackling of the fire.

***

She was dangling by a rope from a wooden beam, the structure designed specifically to keep her hanging only a few inches above certain death, close enough to feel the fire while being forced to watch her brother.

“BRANDON!”

Her screams are only for her brother’s sake, and Rhaegar’s father laughed cruelly as her tears evaporated in the heat and smoke stains her face. His eyes gleaming over her barely not burning body. Aerys had forgotten about the slowly choking, wild wolf, he was fixed on his latest addition, her cries feeding his delight.

He had added her last minute, her father already burning when he had called for someone to go fetch her.

The entire court was present, and her screams echoed in the vast silence that had overtaken the audience. All of their eyes were on her.

She kept struggling, moving and shifting, trying to free herself, to go save him.

“HOLD STILL, LITTLE CUB. CALM DOWN, I´M COMING FOR YOU BUT YOU HAVE TO STOP MOVING!”

The scent of burning flesh began to invade the room, and Aerys rose, Rhaella trembling by his side, Rhaegar below them with a hand resting on his sword. He looks toward her brother a sees him a lost closer to the sword, his face now red and his movements more desperate.

_He´s still fighting for her._

“BRANDON STOP, PLEASE!” She fought her bindings, so consumed by her despair that she couldn't hold back her tears. From time to time her gaze darted away from her brother to the still form of her father.

 _He is still alive,_ Rhaegar realizes, _but he´s staying silent for them. He doesn´t want them to fight a lost cause._

But fight they did.

Lyanna struggled over the flames, smoke billowing around her, entering her throat and burning her lungs, he's certain, but still she screamed and pleaded with her brother to stop.

 _She doesn´t beg us,_ he thought, _she doesn´t beg me._

The Starks are probably the first of the Mad King´s victims that don´t ask for mercy. They suffer only for each other.

He marvles at this.

_She´s beginning to burn._

He could see her skin starting to blister, how her shackles shone red and burned into her skin, her dress falling to pieces and wafting toward the ceiling, burning up before they reached the rafters.

Rhaegar noticed he'd begun to shake. It was bothering him more than it should. There was a feeling of sickness stirring in his stomach. Sick about everything. He was disgusted with the lies he'd told her, how he was willing to rape her the night before simply to get what he wanted and now he wants to stop her suffering at all cost.

But he doesn´t.

 _The prophecy will save all of us,_ he remembers, trying to calm himself.

He fails.

 _It´s not for my good_ , he repeats himself again and again, _it´s all of our lives against only two of them._

 

_She should know better._

_A small price to pay for the living,_ Aerys voice remembers him.

Her brother keeps pushing.His face began to turn purple and Rhaegar knew he was living his final moments.

Apparently, Lyanna had the same realization.

“BRANDON, BRANDON PLEASE STOP. HOLD STILL I´M COMING FOR YOU… PLEASE DON´T DIE… BRAN ST…OP MOVI…NG I...BEG... YOU TO S…TOP. BRAND…ON PLE…ASE, PLE…ASE MY SWEE…T BRAN DO…N’T D…IE.”

Sobs interrupted her words and Rhaegar watched as the tears fell harder and harder.

_A small price to pay for living._

His hands began to tremble again.

He watches her struggle, her gaze searching the silent faces that watch her but don't seem to see her.Her eyes begin to grow cold as less and less tears leave them.

Hates begin to darken her eyes and Rhaegar wonders if there was ever a more beautiful sight.

 She swayed above the fire, not touching it, the burning corpse of her father, finally dead and silent, for which Rhaegar was glad.

_He doesn´t hear his children suffer anymore._

It was a small blade, a dagger thrown from the crowd. It flew true, severing the rope that held Lyanna above the fire. She dropped with a cry, but managed to miss her father's burning armour as she scrambled quickly to escape the flames. Gaining her footing just beyond, her eyes landed on him for a heartbeat, filled with hatred and fury.

_A small price to pay._

She ran to her brother, picking up his sword and severing the rope that strangled him.

But it was too late.

She fell to her knees and cradled his body, tears dropping to land on his blue and swollen face. She was whispering to him, soft words, a song he couldn't hear. Rhaegar approached her silently.

He reached out, about to touch her, when another blade slashed past his hand. Lyanna spared him only a moment's glance before her attention returned to her brother.

“I´m here for you, Bran, please don´t go, I´m here for you. I need you, I want you, I´m sorry, I´m sorry, I´m sorry”.

Her whispers were like Aerys', but softer, warmer. Kinder. They reminded Rhaegar of a lullaby.

“LET THIS BE A LESSON, TO ALL OF MY ENEMIES, THE ONES BRAVE ENOUGH TO FACE ME AND THE ONES WHO HIDE IN THE DARKS.

YOU CAN´T DEFY THE DRAGON AND WIN”.

Aerys grabs Rhaella and walks off, his eyes shining with madness.

Rhaegar lowered his eyes, he knew what was going to happen to his mother.

_A small price to pay for the living._

_But was it?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, thanks to everybody who has read and commented on the story, you really made me keep going. I just can´t believe more than a hundred people left kudos and the amount of comments as well, considering this is my only fic at the moment. Also, thanks to wobormok797 for correcting this chapter. I´ll update soon, I promise. P  
> lease comment, I hope you like it and thank you very much for reading.


	10. Lyanna V

_They surrounded her, trapping her in a cage of memories and shadows. Her eyes drifted to their grey faces, marked clearly by death. Half melted, some of them, others purpling and turning black. Their eyes, still open, were fixed on her, watching, filled with hatred and judgment._

_Traitor, they spat as they closed in, and she started running, because it was the only thing she could do. She ran toward the icy lake in front of her, hoping it would swallow her, freeze her, end her, so that she might join the other wolves beneath Winterfell._

_But she didn't make it._

_Snakes seethed on the path in front of her, catching her feet and tangling as a dragon appears from the sky and the forceful wind of it's wings knock her to the ground. She rolled over to stare up at it, and watched, horrified, as it opened it's mouth. She could see the fire roiling in it's throat, and then it was boiling forth. She hoped to die burning._

_He died this way._

It´s an honor that is denied to her.

Lyanna Stark awoke covered in sweat, the taste of blood in her mouth and hot tears rolling down her cheeks.

After all that had passed, she still vividly remembered every moment of it, every image she saw and ever sensation she felt. It's burned into her mind.

She couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it.

She sat alone, a calming dark surrounding her, an easy silence in the air and a faint smile on her lips.

She no longer waited for someone to rescue her.

He came to visit her the very next morning.

He interrupted her stillness and told her what she didn't want to know. He looked down when he spoke to her, violet eyes trying to avoid her judgment.

"They arrived three days ago. Your brother demanded to have you back and bared his sword. My father saw it as a threat and accused him and your father of treason. The day before they arrived, we learned that Robert Baratheon called his banners and joined with Jon Arryn of the Vale. They are denouncing the Targaryen kingship, they're traitors. We didn´t know if your had family joined them, but my father accusedthem of it anyway. Your father demanded trial by combat. My father chose fire as his champion."

Lyanna looked up at him coldly, an emotionless mask firmly frozen on her face as she gripped the new crown of winter roses he'd given her tightly.

_How dare you?_

"Leave." She ordered him.

"Return to your wife."

"Lyanna, please..."

She stood and slapped him, the sound of the strike the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.

"Leave"she whispered fiercely.

He still didn't raise his eyes.

 _Coward_ , she wanted to scream.

He complied, and ceased visiting her. Still, a new winter rose crown appeared every day.

They always smelled like him.

She would destroy them every night.

She one morning she just started to train. Her eyes had opened and she´d felt an ache that could only be filled with fighting. Slowly, she moved around, rehearsing and mimicking the movements she'd seen Ragnar do when he trained in the morning.

Brandon had been by his side, watching the wildling with faked disinterest. Ned had been at the Eyre and only knew of Ragnar by the letters Lyanna sent him. Benjen had been by her side, both of them watching their father's prisoner with solemn awe.

"Come along, little pup. It's time you learn how to defend yourself." He said with an easy, mocking smile.

"I know how to fight. My father's men have taught me, and Benjen's already learning too. Lyanna is the only one who doesn't." Brandon had retorted.

_But he hadn't been looking at Brandon._

Lyanna smiled at the memory and sat in the middle of the room, comfortably tired and satisfied with her exertions. She held the poker she had used as a sword in front of her.

_Breathe, calm yourself and wait._

She closed her eyes, the image forming in her mind’s eye.

_I´ll kill you._

It takes days for her to regain her full strength. When she starts to eat again, the food comes in larger quantities, the same tray left on the small table afforded to her, but now it's fuller. She has bread, and juice, meat, small fishes, vegetables dipped in a soft and warm cream, and at least three desserts.

It doesn't seem like they are at war to her.

Her body fills out again, but she notices her frame is smaller than before, her hips more prominent and her ribs more easily seen.

She smiled at this.

She didn't want her old body back.

Her burns and cuts are healed by a silent Maester while she sleeps, and soon she looks as healthy and unharmed as when she was first brought to the tower.

The notes were never left in the same place twice. Beneath her wrist bandages, under her pillow, beneath the tray of food. She left her replies in the same place she found the note, answering only with a short word or two. Looking for a new note was the only source of joy and hope that Lyanna had.

That night she stayed awake, sitting in the middle of the room, grey eyes shining, waiting for him to come. And he didn't disappoint.

 

Varys entered the room quietly, his soft steps barely heard against the cold stone. Since she had returned to the tower, she hadn´t lit the fire (no maids had been allowed on her chamber after she returned) nor the lights, which made it cold and dark.

She couldn't help but feel like she was at home.

_You don't have a home until they are dead._

Lyanna had always been intrigued by Varys. He spoke to her only once, complimenting her on her beauty, before walking away. He hadn't even directed his eyes towards her afterwards.

His voice was as she remembered, when he finally spoke, soft and kind. He smelled of fresh air and crushed herbs. Lyanna closed her eyes and allowed his scent to wash over her.

Her eyes are hard and cold when she opens them.

"Are you sure, my dear?"

Lyanna looked at him in surprise. He spoke to her as if she was a little girl, a soft northerner, who didn't understand what was happening.

"Starks don't change their minds."

_And I still am one, even if your new gods think I married Rhaegar._

That seemed to be enough for him. He beckoned for her to stand and follow him to the door. The first step she took outside the chamber that had been her prison filled her with a rush that made her head spin.

_I´m free._

_In a way._

He lead her silently toward the first floor, and then even further down, into the depths of the castle. They entered the catacombs with a single torch to light their way, but their surroundings remained dim in the flickering light, as Lyanna remembered them. She could barely see anything, the light of the fire too bright for her eyes, now accustomed to the darkness of her tower prison. Varys led her confidently between dragon skulls and through dusty doors, never slowing down or looking backwards.

"I memorized this path when I first arrived to King's Landing." He explained to her as they walked. "It's the first one I teach my little birdies, and likely the most useful, then comes the one that connects the castle with one of the nearest brothel. You would be surprised how many highborn men loosen their tongues with women, or men, they've never met."

"Oh." Was all she said, walking behind him, slightly interested in what he was saying.

_It might be useful someday._

“Where are we going?” she asked him after a few moments of walking in silence.

“To the dark cells, my dear.” The rest of their walk passed quietly, neither of them speaking. They passed through rotting doors and they encounter so many forks that Lyanna can barely remember what branch to take. She often glanced into dark rooms and wondered if any of them were the place in which she'd sparred with Oberyn.

They finally reach a door at which Varys stopped. Folded neatly on the ground was a bundle of cloth and a small bag perched on top of it. Varys turned to her, meeting her gaze with cold, calculating eyes.

"Farewell, my lady. I can go no further. I wish you safe travels. Remember your promise." He handed her two small keys and smiled. "One is for the door that leads to the city, the door at the end of the hall through there." He nodded at the door. "The other is one you'll need to decide whether you wish to use."

Without explaining further, he opened the door and pushed her through.

_Finally free._

She took a moment to look around as the door was closed behind her. There were seven cells on each side of the hall. Only two torches lit the black area, one at the door she'd come through, and one at the door on the other end. Everything between was nearly pitch black.

_It´s almost as darks as the crypts in Winterfell._

Lyanna walked softly down the hall, firmly down the middle, not daring to get too close to the cells, even if most of them appeared empty.

_If they see me, I'm dead._

She stopped as a voice wound through the air. The sound came from the last cell on the right.

"I need more wine, Warden. If you refuse, I'll have to speak with my sister about getting new chambers. She won't be pleased."

She stands still for a moment, listening as the echoes of his voice died in the darkness.

 _Gods, he´s drunk_.

The small drawing on the iron key shines on her right hand and the drawing of the lock shines as well.

_It´s his key._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to wobormok797 for correcting and to my dear friend Watson, for helping with the story. Thank you for reading and thank you for commenting and I hope you liked it.  
> Thanks again and please comment.


	11. Oberyn V

He lost track of time, allowed it slip over him like water, calming a wound and cleansing it from the infection that rotted him.

_You should´ve known._

_You should´ve gone to her instead of passing if your days half drunk in every brothel in this god damned city._

_You should´ve thrown the knife sooner._

Her words didn´t ring on his mind like he thought they would. He remembered them, but doesn´t repeat them. Her sent is easily forgotten and her taunting hallucination leaves him alone. He thinks it´s a twisted way he has of grieving. His numbness towards her reminds him of the time his father died.

The only time he was ever told he was like his mother.

“You are like our lady Mother, Oberyn” Doran had said just after Elia had fallen asleep, her cheeks still stained with tears, her eyes still swollen and their father´s robes over her, his disappearing smell leading her into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

“You don´t mourn. You move on. You stop caring”.

It had been a lie.

When was left alone, he had silently cried his eyes out, missing the only man that was like him in his family. The man that had promised him to give him brothers and sisters that would be like the both of them.

_Wild._

_Free._

_Useless._

He pressed the cold key to the palm of his hand and the words she said to him echoed in the darkness, her face appeared to him and spoke with the coldness she had. He had seen her through the bars and looked upon a different girl he had known. She looked older, sharper, wilder and darker. She wasn´t a girl anymore. She didn´t even look human. Her eyes shinned with death and her voice sounded like ice and pain.

“ Don´t think about me, don´t talk about me, don´t remember me  because you are nothing to me and I´ll kill you and all your family. Here´s your key. Run away, take the ones you love and hide. Pray that I don´t find them, because if I do, they´ll die screaming in pain”.

Then she had given him his key through the little hole with iron bars on the door, then she had turned and walked away. Her steps silent against the floor, she had disappeared into a darkness that would never swallow him.

_She did right._

He repeated this every time he caught himself thinking of her.

_She did what she had to._

_She did what you would´ve done._

But that only made her more perfect in his eyes.

This time the darkness was soothing. He calmly held his key and waited for was sure to be next. He made no attempt to run away. Not attempt to move or even to speed things up.

He just waited for them. It took less than Oberyn expected. Less than a day, or that´s what he had thought.

They sent the guards to get him and he was escorted through the dark twists and halls that made the catacombs where he used to fight her. He could feel her ghost lingering around him.

He said nothing as the guards lead him through the empty courtyards, his eyes traveled silently to the sky and he watched as dawn began to break. Slowly adjusting to the light, Oberyn wondered if Lyanna had gone through the same.

Somehow he doubted it.

They pushed him inside a room that had no windows, only lamps and a fire place, both bursting out like they were in the middle of the coldest of winters.

_Dragons do like fire, but so do salamanders._

Both of them were present. She sat, her belly half swollen and Oberyn noted that she has gained a little bit of weight. He would´ve smiled in the past. Her hair, on the other hand, seemed grayer and far more fragile than he remembered.

_Gods. It´s killing her._

Rhaegar looks even worse. His hair no longer looked like silver, but snow, a tired look spoiled his otherwise perfect chiseled features and he had lost at least the same amount of weight that Oberyn. His hand is still bandaged, Oberyn noted with interest.

_It should´ve healed by now._

He did not hide his grin.

_Both of them deserved it. Shrivel up, would you dragon? Tire yourself up and die. Make our lives easier, please._

Elia wanted to say something. But he didn´t allow her to. He spat his words, half furious and half disgusted with her.

“Did you know?”

At first it seemed like she didn´t know what to answer, but then she lowered her eyes, ashamed. He didn´t take his eye off of her.

 _You bitch_.

“I had a small suspicion, based on nothing. I didn´t want to believe it.”

He turned around and kicked an empty chair. It fell and he kept hitting it until it broke. Then he graved a bottle of wine and threw it towards her. It didn´t hit her, it wasn´t supposed to, but it caused the effect he wanted.

In her eyes he saw her realize how much he hated her. It turned her cold.

He said nothing.

Rhaegar stood silent, watching him from afar, not daring to stop him.

“You could´ve told me” he finally spits at her, panting.

“And you would´ve done what, exactly?” she shots back, her voice changed into her Queen voice. She was just as angry as him, but she controlled it.

_The cold exterior never suited you Elia. You care too much to pretend you don´t._

He didn´t answer right away.

“You should´ve told me”.

Then his eyes turned to Rhaegar.

“You should pray that she doesn´t reach her brother. If she does, you´ll have no power over them and they´ll have nothing to lose. They´ll tear you apart and I´ll enjoy watching”.

Rhaegar looked at him in strange way. Like he hoped Lyanna would reach the north. Like he cared for her.

_If you fell in love with her I´ll kill you._

“That doesn´t matter now. She won’t reach her brother”. Elia´s voice was calmed and proper. Queen like.

She was expecting him to ask her why.

She sounded like Lyanna. Filled with determination and power.

“We´ve sent men after her”.

The silence invited him to do it. He looked at Elia and asked soflty.

“What kind of men, dear sister?”

“Mercenaries” answered Rhaegar. “We hired a small group of mercenaries and placed a prince on her secretly. Varys helped us. We also took a girl, dyed her hair and locked her up. There´s virtually no difference between them. But that didn´t fool Aerys. He hired men of his own to go after her.”

Oberyn doesn´t even turn to him this time.

“Shut the fuck up, or I´ll rip your tongue out”.

He does.

“Someone told him and before we could stop him, he ordered a group of guards to hunt her down. He is convinced she´s with child Oberyn. He thinks it´s Rhaegar’s”.

Elia doesn´t comment on the possibility that it may be truth.

He only hisses this, but in the middle of the angry silence that sounds him, it sounds as clear as if he had shouted it.

“It better not be true”.

Rhaegar clears his throat.

“It isn´t”.

Elia´s eyes locked onto his. Oberyn said nothing.

_Why are they telling me this?_

He just turned around and walked towards the door.

“Lock me up, will you? I don´t need to hear your bullshit”.

“OBERYN” Elia leaves her chair and looks at him like he´s just a servant. Someone she´s never met.

_She wants me to go after her._

“Man up, will you? We don´t have time to beg for your forgiveness or to convince you we feel bad about what we both did. I made a mistake and I´ll never forgive myself for it. My mistake got two good men killed, and left little girl with a scar she´ll never be able to heal. But this is not about that. Lyanna ran away alone, hurting and weak, half dead. She doesn´t know the South and for all we know, she could now be in a pit buried with ten other victims of the war or she could be gang raped tomorrow. And the men we sent and the men Aerys sent won’t help. I´m not going to ask you, but you know what I want. If she dies, the little bit of peace we have won with Ned Starks will fade and thousands will bleed for it. Grow up. This is not about you or her. It´s about protecting the kingdom”.

He stops.

_You´re wrong._

_She´s as strong as she´ll ever be. Your husband made her like this._

But he thinks of how cold and dead she sounded. And the thought of how many girls will be left like this if war really broke.

He thought of his girls, sweet little innocent things and how they could be transformed into the creature Lyanna had become.

_Not one more like her._

He places his hand over the door kneel.

“Fine” he whispers, broken.

He´ll chase her, even if she doesn´t want him to. Even if he´s scared of what he could find. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know it´s been a while, but have like 5 chapters written so I´ll be updating soon. Thank you very much to all who have read, commented and left kudos, you keep me going.  
> Thanks for reading and please comment!


	12. Lyanna VI

Lyanna sighed, bored and looked around the tent, walking around, hoping that she was going to be able to pull it off.

_I have to._

She stood in front of a mirror and studied herself. She did this more often that she´d cared to admit. Not seeing herself during her whole imprisonment made her curious of how she looked.

Big grey eyes, dark brown hair, a little longer that she would like it to be, but it gave her an air of femininity she didn´t have before. Her skin was paler than usual and she had been slowly but surely getting her weight back.

 _Still_ , she thought, _I look pretty enough_.

It felt odd and strange, worrying about how she looked. She felt like she was betraying her lady mother when doing so.

_Never look to the mirror just to see if you are beautiful, Lya, you shouldn´t have to._

He entered the tent running, his locking on hers like she was his prey.

 _Not prey_ , she thought bitterly, _price._

Robert looked handsome, like he always had. He had a black two week beard and his bright blue eyes gleamed with hope. He came near her and she backed away. Dreading his touch, his smell and voice.

_It was all partly his fault._

If Robert hadn´t raised his banners, maybe Aerys would´ve understood. Maybe he would´ve saved them. Maybe they would´ve lived.

“You ran away?” he asked her, and as love filled his voice, his eyes gleamed with happiness, his hands tried to reach her.

She stood still, out of his reach.

 _Time for the show_.

As her silence grew, his happiness began to fade and she saw him put on his warrior face.

It suited him better.

“How?” he asked her softly, a little harsher than she expected him to.

She didn´t answer. She would never. I had been part of her deal.

 _“Lie once, then twice and then some more my Lady. No one can know_ ”.

“Where´s my brother?” She asked in a soft voice, like a little broken bird in need of healing. After all, it was what was expected of her.

Robert looked confused for a moment and then smiled sadly.

“He left about 5 days ago, looking for a way to King´s Landing. He´ll come back in a moon or so”.

_Still completely alone._

She was almost grateful. Ned wouldn´t see what she had become.

Robert fell silent and turned away for a moment. Lyanna used this second out of his gaze to gather herself, she couldn´t allow the disappointment to show. She knew what she had to do. She had to trick Robert into thinking that she loved him, trap him in her net of lies so he wouldn´t be able to move. She´d have to making him loose the war.Then she´d have to talk to Ned, convince him of her story and pray that he would agree. Ned was quiet, thoughtful and above all, fair. He wouldn´t want a real war, not like Robert did. He didn´t want fame or glory. He would want to go back to Winterfell and raise his sons, like an old and tired man and die a peaceful death, many years from now. He would want to live his life in a calmed tranquility. And she wanted that for him. He deserved it more than ever. Lyanna wanted to give her brother the things he deserved, she truly did. But to do all that, she had to avenge their family first. She´d have to ensure no harm would ever come to them again. 

_ Give the performance of your life. _

“One night” she began whispering in a soft voice, she sat on a chair and looked at her hands, allowing a single tear to slide down her cheek, “he left the door open. It was like he was daring me to escape, and once he saw I didn´t, he left it open all the time. But I wouldn´t ran. I thought he had more hostages. More people I loved in danger, I thought he had you, so I stayed, but never allowed him to touch me. I only wanted you to do it.” 

_He never tried to, anyway_. 

Lyanna looked up and saw Robert standing still, waiting for her to continue. She could hear the horses and the men outside, preparing the camp for nightfall. She can smell the fires and the dirt, typical smells in a camp. But they didn´t matter. Inside Robert´s tent, they were in a whole other world, far away from everybody else. Alone they were, the deceiver and the deceived . She had him hooked to every word she said, he breathed when she told to him and moved only when she allowed him to. He was completely in love with her. She can only feel sorry for him. 

“And then, one night, I forgot to care”, she whispers, using the broken voice she had hid inside her. “He left and I didn´t remember what had kept me before, so I ran and ran and ran and got out of King´s Landing through the sewers. Please don´t ask me more about it. You really wouldn´t want to know. It was the thought of you, fighting for me that pushed me through it Rob, you gave me the courage I needed”.

Lyanna fell silent and watched Robert march towards her. He took her hand in his and kneeled in front of her. 

 

“I´m sorry” he whispered, his voice like she had never heard it. “I´m sorry I put you through that and I´m sorry I wasn´t good enough”. Lyanna smiled softly and put her forehead on his. 

_ Play everyone like they are paws.  _

_ Use them and dispose of them.  _

_ They are only a small part of the game. _

“I´m sorry Robert” she whispers to him, like she heard her mother do to her father, like Oberyn had done with her “ please send for Ned. Ask him to return. We need someone of my family at out weeding”. 

 

Robert Baratheon chuckled softly and raised his hand to her cheek. He pushed her face towards him and laid a chaste kiss on her lips. It was very different from the way Oberyn kissed. When Lyanna kissed Oberyn, she felt fire and passion, she melted onto him and started to blend with him, the two of them transforming into one. With Robert, though, she felt nothing. Lips on lips and the warm of his body near hers, but no passion, no hunger and undying desire for more. 

She felt empty, like she´d always feared she would. 

When they parted, Robert smiled with his boyish charming smile and drowned in her eyes. She felt him pushing, getting lost on her grey pools while she could only stare at his blue eyes, not daring to go inside them. 

She found herself wishing they were brown and warm and dangerous. 

_ Like Oberyn´s.  _

Before he could kiss her again they were interrupted by a stranger. He was tall, had grey hair, small dark eyes and a nose that reminded Lyanna of an eagle. But he wasn´t necessarily bad looking and as his eyes laid on them, Lyanna realized that he looked much smarter than Robert.

_ He won´t be easily outsmarted. _

He wore an eagle on his chest. 

Jon Arryn. The man that raised the quiet wolf. 

“Robert” he said, barging in, not acknowledging Lyanna. 

“We have captured a prisoner”.

Robert jumped away from Lyanna and out of the tent. She got up slowly up and studied Jon Arryn carefully. He studied her back.

“Who is the prisoner, my Lord?” Lyanna asked softly, as both headed for the tent´s entrance. He looked down for a moment. Chuckled and opened the tent for her.

“Your lover, my Lady”. 

Lyanna didn´t allow him to see her fear. She couldn´t.

“Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking sooooo long I´ve been out of the country and Oh My god there wasn´t internet conection were I went and I didn´t have my laptop and sorryyyyyyyyy.  
> I hope you like this chapter and please comment. I am so glad to be back!!


	13. Jaime

 He woke up in the middle of the night, panting. A vanishing darkness surrounded him and he wondered if Lyanna had ever felt like he felt now, locked up in a tower, no possibility of going out.

_Probably not._

Lying next to him, Cersei slept. Her golden hair was tangled with his and he felt her warmth through his skin, hitting his core. She opened her beautiful emerald eyes and looked at him smiling.

_Gods._

“I really thought you were saying the truth” she whispered to him, in a soft, silky voice.

_I was._

Jaime hadn´t meant to kiss her. He hadn´t meant to answer to her moans and pleads. He´d promised himself he would only do one thing with his life and loving Cersei wasn´t it.

He´d promised to Rhaegar he would protect his family if he protected his. Cersei´s hand slid down to his manhood. She began touching him slowly and his body, betraying him again, answered to her touch.

He closed his eyes, throwing control and surrendering himself to her.

He didn´t  even hear the intruder.

She worked him slowly, moaning herself instead of him. Jaime watched her silently. She seemed so sure, so ready.

“What´s gotten into you?” he asked her later, when they were both covered in his seed.

“Nothing” she whispered as she glowed next to him. “Just the right things at the right time”

***

“You are excused, Ser Jaime” Rhaella´s soft voice woke him from his dreamless sleep.

“You´ve spent your whole day with us, Ser. I think both you and I would like some privacy” the Queen continued.

Jaime watched her without blinking.

All silver and lilac, the woman was beautiful, a certain air of elegance surrounding her. Somehow she reminded him of his late Lady mother, Joanna Lannister. Jaime allowed the royals to dine alone.

He called out a guard and stationed him on the door.

Then he went to his room, where he knew Cersei would be.

But all the way, he could only think about the Targaryens. He felt awkward around them. Partly because he couldn´t stand the sick look Queen Rhaella had, her belly slowly beginig to swell and her skin becoming paler and paler, and partly because Rhaenys and Viserys would look at each other and then at him with thier piercing lilac eyes.

 _They know what you did_ , a voice that sounded way too much like Cersei´s would whisper inside his head.

_They know you allowed the She-wolf to escape with Varys._

_They know you are the reason they´re locked up_.

Jaime couldn´t argue. He was the reason Rhaegar had demanded to have his whole family locked up and protected because he had opened his mouth about possible hidden entrances to the Red Keep. He had been the one who told the Prince about how his Father had raped his mother after the deaths of Brandon and Rickard Stark.

He heard her screams once again, as he approached his chambers.

Loud, fearful and pleading.The she-wolf had cried for her brother, for her father and he´d stood there like stone. Frozen, as if he was dead he had watched Rickard Stark burn, Brandon Stark choke and Lyanna Stark cry.

He´d done nothing.

And then he had stood outside Rhaella´s door like a good guard. He had listen to the mad king rape the queen and had gone inside himself, like Cersei had told him to do.

_Coward._

He had gone to the land where he and Cersei where alone. Where she was fully his and he was allowed to love her in front of everyone. But her face had changed as he kissed her. She´d become queen Rhaella, her screams having clashed against his inner walls and he had to ask Jon Darry.

“Shouldn´t we do something?”

The answer had been swift.

“No”.

Cersei waited for him in his bed. She was naked, looking like a vision sent from heaven.

He was already getting hard.

 _No,_ he said to himself.

_Not again._

“You shouldn´t be here”.

His eyes darted forward, locking onto her eyes and not allowing her to use her body as a diversion.

Cersei stood in front of him, her eyes slowly turning into stone, he could see her grow angry. Her hair was simply braided and her shoulders showed. She was wearing little jewelry and make up.

Jaime had the impulse to yank her towards him.

“What are you doing here?”

His voice was rough, cold and detached. He braced himself, waiting for her rage.

_Not again Cersei._

_I won´t help you again._

“I´m visiting my dear brother. Am I not allowed to?” she said, her eyes cold. Green like emeralds, frozen like winter.

She stepped closer to him.Too close for normal brothers, but there wasn´t anyone near them to see.

No one would ever do.

_This ends._

_Now._

“Go away Cersei. Go warm some other idiot´s bed. This one is tired of helping you with your schemes.”

Her voice came soft, silky and lustful, yet he could feel the anger emanating from her body.

_Didn´t expect any less from you._

“It doesn´t matter if I´m allowed or not, dear brother, soon you´ll have to stand outside my door and you´ll be forced to do as I please”.

She turned around and took one of his robes.

 Jaime watched her go silently.

He somehow felt lithgter.

***

He hadn´t even closed his eyes when the fire started.

He smelled the smoke and ran outside his chamber.

All hell had broken loose.

And Jaime Lannister froze.

_Brave as a Lion._

_Hear me Roar._

 

He forced himself out f his castle. Everywhere he looked he saw flames and smoke. On the doors and tapestries, the air filled with the dark clouds. The fire roared around him and he felt the tower grow weaker. The stones from the wall started to turn black and the hot air burned his throat.

_Get the Queen._

He broke part of one of his robes and used it as a mask, to avoid the smoke. The tower seemed eternal. Jaime jumped, two to three steps at a time as went up. Queen´s chambers where less than two full stores above his and he cursed himself for not sleeping in her room.

The smoke made his eyes tear up and he kicked the door open.

Rhaella had Viserys in her arms and the prince was screaming, but all Jaime could see was Rickard Stark burning alive in his armor and Rhaella standing by her husband, allowing a young girl to be made an orphan.

He almost left her there.

 

Carrying the young prince, he ran with them to the entrance, where, to his surprise, there where servants trying to help. They took the Queen and he went back inside. Elia was nowhere to be seen.

He ran to her chambers, and she wasn’t there. She went to Rhaeny´s chambers. And as he ran he heard the stones crack. He saw the wood turn to ash in front of him and wondered, once again, what was that Aerys saw in his fires.

He found her when his lungs were beginning to hurt. His throat was irritated and tears fell down his face.

_The things I do._

Elia of Dorne was surrounded by fire when he found her.

She looked very much like Rhaella had.

She had both her daughter and her son on her arms, holding them tight.

Jaime knew it was her because the flames were licking her face, destroying it. He could see a small portion of it untouched, her cold dead eyes forever looking scared.

Her children were fully burned. Their bodies slowly turning to coal. Rhaenys brown hair had turned to long big flames, the skin of her face was boiling, her eyes already melted.

Jaime did not dare to look towards baby Aegon.

He just watched them burn.

 Then he walked towards them slowly, burning himself in the process. He remembered Cersei, and how she seemed to glow lying next to him.

_Just the right things at the right time._

_She knew_ , he thought, a small tear evaporating before it ever left his eye.

 _Cersei knew about this._ He doesn´t feel the flames, he just does as Cersei told him. He hides in his castle and watches as the body of Elia of Dorne is transformed into a bright ember. Jaime Lannister didn´t feel the flames starting to crawl up his body, he didn´t feel the smoke filling his lungs, he only felt the tears he couldn´t cry for the woman he was meant to protect.

His twin sister did.

As she watched the tower fall down and fill the air with ashes and smoke, she felt the fire tingling on her arms, the hot air on her lungs.

But she did not shed one tear.

She couldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. I´ll be posting a new chapter soon. Sorry for taking soooo long (again) but this one was kind of hard, to do and to write.  
> Hope you liked it!  
> Thank you very much for reading and please comment!


	14. Oberyn VI

Robert Baratheon knew nothing of interrogating captives. He asked the questions bluntly at first, revealing everything he needed to know to Oberyn and then he proceeded to hide his intentions, when it was no longer of use. He also didn´t know when to hit, his blows came when Oberyn mentioned Lyanna, not when he clearly hid information from him.

_And she was going to marry him?_

Oberyn sighed once again as Robert Baratheon drunkenly said something about the number of soldiers on the capital.

Behind him, the guards stood silently, their eyes focused on their Lord. Oberyn watched them wondering how come such a man had loyal men. He was rude, disrespectful and vain. Each a quality that a High born Lord should not have.

_A lord should be thoughtful Oberyn, he should be humble and above all cleaver. A real lord never has to show that he know he is a Lord._

His mother was the one who told him how a Lord should behave and how to act when he was in court.

Even if he never did, he still knew.

“I´ve grown tired of your treacherous words, worm” Robert Baratheon declared as he stood up, managing to knock three chairs in the process.

 _How?_ Oberyn asked himself _I haven´t really talked._

Robert Baratheon left the cell a put the only candle lighting the cell out. Oberyn sighed heavily. He was in poorly built cell, tied up to a poll, like it was custom. The moon light entered through the bars and in the dim night, Oberyn waited for Lyanna.

 

He knew she would come. She hadn´t come to this camp on purpose, she´d been looking for her brothers men and had stumbled with Baratheon only because someone had informed her wrongly. Oberyn hadn´t had much trouble following her. She wasn´t careless, but a young, womanly looking, northerner man was hard to miss. Even if they didn´t say it, a lot of people she encountered had kind of an idea about who she was and the hate for the King had begun to grow among the common folk.

 

Lyanna entered the cell like a whisper. There were no guards outside his cell, another sign of how incompetent Robert Baratheon really was, and even if there had been, he knew Lyanna would´ve passed them. He´d seen her fight, he´d felt her blows.

“Why are you here?” her voice was as cold as he remembered, but she looked completely different. She stood tall and proud and fiercely looked at him, disgust drawn all over her face.

Oberyn wondered if he could kiss her.

He liked this Lyanna, filled with hate and disgust. He didn´t want to make love with this Lyanna, he wanted to fuck her, scream and scratch her, and the thought startled him. He´d never thought of violent sex with a girl easily ten years younger than him but right now Lyanna didn´t look a decade younger, she looked a decade older than him.

Oberyn smiled.

“I´m here for you, my love”.

She kneeled before him, her eyes darker than the night that surrounded them.

“I don´t need you, love” she said the last part like it had a sour taste, spitting it. Somehow, he got angry all of the sudden. Who was she to mock him for pretending to love her? , not that he actually was but that didn´t come to subject, she was living –IN SIN- with the Baratheon idiot. Lyanna Stark surely had a double standard.

“Why?” he answered angrily at her “Because you now are with your Baratheon knight and he´ll come and save you every time you call for him? We both know you can´t stand the bastard ant that more importantly, you don´t need him.”

Lyanna´s face turned into a disgusted grin.

“Who are you to say what I want or need? You were just an infatuation I had before everything. You are a coward, kissing me one day and the next abandoning me for a pair of easier legs, leaving me to be trapped like a fucking animal, alone with a man that sooner or later would´ve raped me”.

Her voice was quiet and angry. Oberyn felt the hate emanating from every pore of her body.

He wanted to answer her he didn´t know, that he cared about Elia and that he was protecting her.

_But you are right._

“I´m the man that stands with family” he answered more to himself than to her.

“Congratulations” she answered him “You allowed a sixteen year old girl to watch her father and brother die because you are a man that stands with his family”.

Oberyn´s eyes moved to the ground.

_You are right._

She seemed to get angrier by the moment.

“Look at me. Don´t you dare not look into my eyes while I talk to you. You owe me that much. I freed you after your only act as a real man. So you cut the rope that dangled me over my dying father, but that doesn´t excuse you allowing Brandon to choke to death. Even if you didn´t know him, even if you had hated him, you knew he had nothing to do with the charges your crazy family put on him”.

Oberyn´s eyes continued on the ground.

_You are right._

“Look at me. Face me coward. You were supposed to help me. You were supposed to answer Jaimie´s letter with a fucking plan to avoid this, but no. You just left me alone, to die in Rhaegar Targaryen´s hands, to shrivel up and to be hidden from everybody. LOOK AT ME WHILE I TALK TO YOU! FACE ME YOU COWARD!”

Her voice broke and before Oberyn knew it, she was crying, sobbing like a little girl, her whole façade broken.

 _I´m sorry,_ he wanted to say, but it would´ve never been enough.

She looked at him, shaking, tears fell from her eyes like a waterfall.

“You were supposed to help me” she whispered, getting closer to him, until her face was so near his that he was breathing the air she was exhaling.

“You were supposed to love me” she said, her voice was low, so low Oberyn barely heard it.

“You were supposed to set me free”.

Her eyes closed and he went for the kiss he knew they both needed. She answered hungrily, parting her lips for him and inviting his tongue inside her mouth. She needed him almost as much as he needed her. I´m sorry. I´m sorry. I´m sorry, he sang while he kissed her, calming her down, bruising her lips, biting and drowning in her. He needed her, wanted her and that moment was when he decided he would never allow her to leave him.

“I´ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you” he whispered to her ear.

“No” she answered him, pressing a knife to his neck.

“You won´t”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, how have you been? I know it´s been a while but I was in the middle of finals and I know the last one wasn´t as good as it should´ve been. I hope you like this one better, in my opinion it its better than the last one. I posted a one shot (I think) about Oberyn and Lyanna in a How to get away with murder Au, cause I love that show and it seemed perfect for them, on tumblr on the oberyn x lyanna tag, please tell me if you want me to continue it here. I hope you liked this chapterm thanks for reading and please comment.   
> Also, since I´m on break, I´ll be posting every three or four days.


	15. Lyanna (with a bit of Oberyn)

Oberyn Martell wasn´t a man to shy away from death. He actively tried to avoid it, but never feared it. He never allowed himself to fear it, never thought about it like it was his enemy. He imagined his death as a glorious final act, the culmination of the great life he had lived. He was, in a way, looking forward to his final moments.

Oberyn Martell planned on welcoming death like an old friend.

It actually had come to him like a lover.

Lyanna was standing in front of him, her face hidden, but he could feel her shake slightly and he felt the small warm tears land on his shirt and burning up in his skin.

He closed his eyes and waited for the final, cold kiss.

She was shaking when the knife touched his skin. The gleaming tip scratched his neck almost gently, close to lovingly.

_Do it._

Her knife sunk in slowly, layer for layer on his neck, a small line of blood ran down his and Oberyn released his air slowly, intimately, over Lyanna´s neck, like a lover´s whisper.

“Forgive me” she whispered to him, her voice warm as summer, her touch cold as winter.

He got ready to feel the knife slide against the rest of his neck, but it didn´t move. It stood in his place.

 _She´s not sure_ , he thought, not being able to register the implications of this.

The voice came from afar and broke the silence that surrounded them. It sounded tired, but not surprised or angry.

“Lady Lyanna, please come out”.

Oberyn´s eyes opened and he looked up, seeing a man stand in his cell´s entrance. The mam held a torch that created shadows all over his face. At first he couldn´t recognize him, but something in him made Oberyn react. The older man standing there wasn´t just a common soldier, despite his dirty, worn out clothes, in his small eagle-like eyes gleamed the spark of intelligence. Something clicked and he knew who this man was.

He was the man that was actually running the war.

_Jon Arryn of the Vale._

Lyanna stood up slowly and looked at Jon Arryn, she didn´t say anything. And seem unsurprised to see him there.

As the idea of death began to fade from his being, he waited for some kind of calmness to invade him. But Oberyn didn’t feel different, he didn´t feel saved or thankful. The calming, silent peace in which he had been sinking, disappeared and was replaced by nothing but a fading carving of the warm death had come with. He noticed he only missed Lyanna´s body against his.

“His life is mine to take” she said dead serious, not a hint of emotion on it “and I want to kill him alone, so please leave my lord”.

Jon Arryn looked at Lyanna, his eyes turning slightly darker, but his expression remaining the same old, tired one.

He sighed so loudly Oberyn heard him.

“Come with me, lady Lyanna, I believe we have subjects to discus and I would really appreciate the comfort of my tent. Let us leave the Red Viper alone”.

Lyanna studied him for a second before cleaning the tip of her knife and walking away, once again leaving Oberyn to drown in the sea of darkness.

***

“Please my love”.

“No”.

Jon Arryn opened his mouth to say something and Lyanna´s mind slipped off. She actually liked the man, she thought he was smarter than most and wanted to see who was the man that had raised her brother, but sadly, Jon Arryn didn´t see women as valuable, smart creatures, he saw them as means to an end, either alliances or reproduction.

Her mind wondered alone towards Oberyn.

 _Kill him_ , a part of her begged.

_Kill him and be done with it. You were ready to do it._

_Was i_?

She didn´t know the answer.

“I WON´T” bellowed Robert.

Lyanna Stark was getting tired of standing this new Robert Baratheon. She kind of missed the loving, almost to a smothering level man that would ask her every five minutes if she was fine and never allowed to do anything alone. Instead she now had to deal with a jealous and controlling small child, all because Jon Arryn, not her, had recruited Oberyn as an ally and had freed him, allowing the Dornish man to walk freely through the camp.

_The idiot._

Lyanna didn´t know if she was thinking about Oberyn, Robert or Jon Arryn.

“Please Robert, just allow me write to him”.

 _I´m getting tired of your stubbornness, you stupid little boy_ , she was tempted to add, just to be able to watch Robert´s reaction.

Robert Baratheon, a king on the making, paced around his tent with a goblet of wine, half empty already, and continued to act like he was the most sober person there.

“No Lya, it´s too dangerous. Their spies could capture your letter or follow it to where Ned is hiding” he said in a serious, patronizing voice.

_And sending him letters with our plans to attack the capital isn´t?_

“Robert, consider it for a moment. She misses her family, her brother, your friend. Allow her to write a few lines, you can read them and see that she doesn´t say anything dangerous” Jon Arryn tried to reason with him.

 _First, I don´t need his or your approval to write to one of the two brothers I have left, second, like I would reveal something important. You should worry more about his whores, and third, this is the exact reason why we can´t be married, he´s as stubborn as a mule and likes to hoard people almost as much as Cersei Lannister_.

Lyanna sighed silently, now she was speaking to herself.

Great.

As the discussion continued, she watched Robert interact with the only man he thought above him. He was respectful and listened, he tried to give arguments and listened to Jon Arryn´s reasoning, even if he was a drunk as he could be and still stand up. She saw a different Robert, a well behaved one that seemed a bit like the Robert she´d imagined. The Robert Baratheon she was seeing was the one she thought she´d fall in love with.

She wondered if this was what Ned saw normaly on him.

_Maybe I would see it on him if I were treated as his equal._

She regarded the affair for a moment, imagining the kind of life she could have if he saw her as a person and not as an object.

It seemed like a happy one.

Then she saw him not paying attention and followed Robert´s eyes to a young, rather pretty looking girl.

_Enough._

“Fine, my love” she spat “I won’t write to my brother, assuring him I´m alive and well and I won´t ask about how he and Benjen are doing, even if they are the two last members of my family”.

Robert stood silently, watching her with surprised eyes, like he didn´t know she was there until a few seconds ago.

“I´ll let you write to them Lya, on one condition”.

_What?_

“Marry me tomorrow at Dawn”.

_No._

_Never._

"Fine”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the process of writing this one was complicated and I´m not entirely sure of it, so forgive me if it seems weird. I would like to thank all the people that have commented, you´ve all been nice enough to waste your time reading and all of your reviews have hopefully helped me to write a better answer. Thank you very much for reading.  
> Please comment and I hope you like it!!


	16. Lyanna VII

He caught her before she could leave.

They stood in silence for a moment, only cold air between them, moon light illuminating the clear he´d been training in just moments before she stumbled in, lost in thought. Neither of them watched the face of the other.

Their eyes avoided each other. “Enjoying the view?” he asked her with a grin. His voice was stone cold, like hers had been lately.

Lyanna raised an eyebrow. Oberyn wasn´t wearing a shirt.

“Yes” she answered “the cut on your neck looks like it´s taking a while to heal. I am very proud of that fact”.

He looked at her for a second before chuckling, then turned and started to stretch.

“What are you doing here anyway?” he asked her mockingly “I don´t think you would like it if your husband would like it if he found out that you walk around the camp, half naked and in the middle of the night without his permission”.

_He isn´t my husband._

_Not yet._

“I don´t need to ask Robert for permission” she simply answered, not joking anymore.

“Then, I don´t think you fully comprehend the institution of marriage” Oberyn answered, still chuckling, he turned around and leaned on a tree.

Lyanna smiled.

_So you want to go there?_

“Actually, I do” she answered “I happen to be already married. You may know my husband. He´s the crown prince and he´s also your sister´s husband. I was forced to marry him shortly before you decided I was a whore and deserved what happened to me”.

The grin faded from his face and his eyes were fixed on hers.

“Ah” he said softly, Lyanna could feel the anger bubbling up inside him. This wasn´t the Oberyn she was familiar with. This was a furious man, angry with the world and with his situation on it. “So that´s why you want to marry the idiot so quickly. You miss being trapped, you like having someone that controls you, that tells you what you can and can´t do. Your yearning for freedom, your defiance, your wild “wolf-blood” it´s all a lie. You just use it to pretend you are different from other girls, when in reality, you just want to be looked up for your husband”.

Lyanna didn´t say a word, she just watched him, her hand gripping her knife.

He left his tree and began to approach her.

“So you don´t deny it?” he asked “But you are really good at faking it Lady Lyanna. You fight and you run and you scream wild things and pretend you are really tough. You are so fucking good you had me completely fooled. When I saw you, I though this girl understands me, this is the girl I should marry, cause she clearly knows what it feels like to be trapped, but it turns out it was all a mask you were wearing to charm grown, idiotic men, like Rhaegar Targaryen, the father of my niece and nephew or Robert Baratheon, great Lord Baratheon, who you knew would start a rebellion for you, and little old and sad me, your betrothed by accident. It turns out, you only wanted attention”.

_Shut up._

Oberyn looked at her with a mixed of disgust and mockery on his face. He closed in on her, finally having her pressed to a tree.

“When I saw you fighting” he whispered to her “I thought I finally understood you. I thought I saw a girl who would kill herself before allowing a man to control her”.

“Turns out” he whispered to her ear, making her shiver “I was wrong”.

She tried to reach him in the same place she had sunk her knife before, but this time he wasn´t tied up and he was faster than her. He was faster than she´d ever seen him.

He gripped her hand and threw away the knife. His eyes locking on hers.

Oberyn slammed her against the tree, and began to kiss her.

He wasn´t gentle, loving or kind, he was hungry, violent and rough.

 _He´s marking me_ , she realized, as she allowed him to kiss her, fill her and brand himself all over her, _he´s marking me for Robert._

His rough, callused hands began to roam through her body. They were in one place one second and another completely different the next. Her hips, her shoulders, her lower back, they were all touched and caressed by Oberyn. He began to moan against her, his lips moving from her mouth to her jaw, and from there he trailed small, hot nips up to her ear, where he sucked her lobe again and again.

Lyanna´s hands where pressed against his chest, restless, and she moved them to grip his shoulders, desperate to feel him closer, to press him more against her. Oberyn took this as a sign and lifted her up, pressing her more against the tree.

“Please” he whispered in her hear, between his and her moans “Please, let me love you”.

For a moment, Lyanna thought about the situation. She imagined some guard seeing them, watching as Oberyn kissed and graved and moan into her and how she didn´t even try to stop him.

_It would look bad._

_It would look terrible._

She didn´t care.

“Please”. She parted her legs even more and had him pressing his hardness against her core. At the feel, her already hard nipples began to feel harder. He began slowly to trust into her, still dressed.

“Thank the gods’ you´re wearing your nightgown” he whispered in her ear, half a moan and half a chuckle.

She thought of asking him if the old gods or the new, but she was too distracted with him tearing her night gown up.

“Sorry love” he said “but this needs to go”.

As soon as they were free, Oberyn began to suck on her nipples. He licked and bit and pulled her right nipple while he made sure she was pressed against the tree and one of his hands slowly traveled downwards. She needed the friction there. His breeches just weren´t enough.

Lyanna gasped loudly and felt him grin.

“Come on now” he said in a husky voice “we don´t want to wake up the entire camp”.

Lyanna smiled and rocked against his hand.

“Then” she said between gasps “those need to go”.

Lyanna never knew how, but in less than a minute, he had gotten rid of his pants and was painting as she grabbed him and aliened him to her entrance.

“Are you sure?” he asked her slowly, his big, dark brown eyes locked on hers.

She just kissed him harder. It hurt at first. And she could feel him containing himself while he waited for her to feel comfortable again.

She bit him and smiled again. He left her mouth and settled on her shoulder as he slowly rocked in and out of her.

“I´m going to take my time beautiful”.

It didn´t take much time for her to reach the edge.

In the middle of her post coital bliss, as she felt him thrust into her to finish, Lyanna Stark smiled, happy, all of her worries forgotten.

*

 

“Why are you even doing it?” the question came out of nowhere.

It wasn´t angry like he had sound been before, it was soft, his voice hurting when he asked it.

They were down on the forest ground, her head resting on his shoulder, his hands softly exploring her body.

Lyanna fell silent for a moment. She tried to think of a good answer, of an answer that would explain him why without telling him the real reason she did it.

She found nothing.

“Because I have to”.

_Liar._

“Bullshit” he said, a little harder than he meant to. Lyanna stiffened under his soft caress of her naked back, waiting for him to stop.

He didn´t.

“Fine” he whispered “just do me one favor”.

“What?” she asked softly.

“Promise me you won´t leave”.

_I can´t._

“Promise” she whispered before kissing him.

 

They left the forest just before dawn. Lyanna walked slowly to her tent, a bittersweet taste in her mouth.

The boy was waiting for her inside of her tent.

He was small, covered in mud and smelled of horse piss.

Lyanna recognized him as one of the boys that helped with the horses.

“Don´t you love it when the birds sing, m’ Lady?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please be nice, this is my first time writing something like this and I´m not entirely sure how well it went. Any way, thank you verryyyy muuuchhh for reading, please comment and I hope you like it!!


	17. Eddard I

Oberyn smiled as the smell of salt and water invaded him. The sun was setting and the ship rocked gently. 

_Enjoy the little things._

“Sir” said a young boy, probably the captain´s son “we´ll part soon”.

“Good”.

***

All around him, the expectant silence echoed, making his body ring to the unexciting sounds, the smoke of the burning houses filled the air, making it hard to breathe and to see. 

Energy filled his veins and an incontrollable desire to move ran through his body. Eddard Stark was often shy at parties, quiet at feasts and stiff at small talk, but at battles, he felt somehow comfortable.

Sword on one hand and a shield on the other, he raised his fist signaling for the men behind him to move. 

_Gods please let us win._

_We need to win._

They started to run silently towards the town. He could hear the loyalist screaming, searching for Robert, who had been hurt recently, only the gods knew how. They stopped at the edge of the trees. 

He located Hoster Tully and silently nodded. The man, older than him by at least twenty years, nodded as well. They weren´t the full forcers. A big part of them had been left behind, ready to enter the city once they had taken the outer wall protecting it. 

We are coming for you Robert.

“FOR RICKARD, FOR BRANDON, FOR LYANNA”. 

The men behind him, half northerners and other the other half Hoster Tully´s men he had won by marrying Lady Catelyn –Catelyn he remembered he had to call her now- started to stomp and scream in approval. 

  


The battle began in the middle of the night. 

Eddard´s first kill was a young man, probably of his age, but of common birth. He had a sword too heavy for him and moved like he had an injury on his knee.

Ned kicked it and with a blow with the flat part of his sword on his neck killed him. The next one wasn´t as easy. It was squire, a man that had fought before and that fought well. His sword hit Ned on the left shoulder making him lose sensibility on it, it might´ve been dislocated but he wouldn´t be able to see it until after the battle, so the only way to come out alive was to attack. He swung his sword towards the man again and again, not leaving him space to breath. In the end, a blow to his torso did him. The man had dodged all of his blows, but he jumped poorly and fell, Ned´s sword entering his chest sideways and stopping halfway through separating in cleanly. 

Ned´s face was splattered with blood. 

He gripped his sword and moved his left shoulder that was slowly recovering. He moved towards the wall, which wasn´t yet taken.

_We need it if we want to win this. Once we are up there, we´ll just have to shoot arrows at them._

The quickly built stairs they had brought to assault the walls weren´t working. The loyalist were just pushing them off and half of the men on them fell to their deaths.

Ned looked around, there was a small part of the wall with fewer soldiers. He saw as one began to grow and realized there was where the stair was. He smiled happily when he saw the sewer drainage.

“COME ON” he screamed hoarsely to a few men fighting next to him. 

They followed him without question.

They fought their way towards the sewer, shields over their heads to avoid the arrows the king´s men shot at them. 

“We need to break this bars” he explained “on the other side there´s a stair to a part of the wall where there´s fewer soldiers. If we take control…” 

He was interrupted by a large man with arms as big as barrels.

“I don´t need to know” he said before swinging his hammer towards the bars. He did it once, twice and on the third, the bars made a quiet sound and spilt on half, the man kicked the reaming of the bars and moved to a side. 

“Off you go Lord Stark” he said. 

Eddard chuckled as he and six other men went in and up the stone stairs.

There were four men fighting for this part of the wall. Ned saw three corpses lying on the ground. Arrows came out of them. 

The fight was silent and quick. His whole plan depended on the loyalist realizing what he had done too late. 

They did. 

The stair was secured and soon his men began to climb it.

It took less than expected to win the outer wall. They opened the doors and in came the rest of his army. 

Ned ordered his troops again and sighed.

Less than he hoped had made it, even with the ones he had left on the wall to shoot. 

_We´ll die tonight._

Bellow them, Jon Connington´s men screamed and got ready to fight. He recognized the man from the tourney at Harrenhal. He was a friend of Rhaegar Targaryen.

“TONIGHT” he screamed “WE WIN OUR PLACES ON HEAVEN”. 

The men screamed again behind him and got ready to charge. 

  


A horn resonated on the night, silencing everyone. 

_Who´s is it?_

He looked at Jon Connington´s face and saw him grow paler.

_It´s Robert._

“ROCK THE BELLS” he screamed at the men in the towers. 

Soon, the whole world seemed to rock with the horns and the bells ringing.

* 

Reunited on a house that hadn´t been burned down by Connington, Ned sat with a bandaged Robert, a more serious than usual Jon Arryn and a few other men, including a wounded Hoster Tully and not including Denys Arryn, Jon Arryn´s heir and his friend.

He had died at the beginning of the battle, killed by a spear to the chest.

“He didn´t suffer” a doctor said.

Ned wasn´t that sure.

“The hand got away with most of his forces still able to fight and well organized, but this doesn´t really matter now” said a man Ned didn´t recognize.

It might´ve been because he actually didn´t know the man or because he was too tired to think properly. 

All he wanted was to wash the blood, ashes and dirt off and go sleep. 

“It´s for the better really” said Hoster Tully “if Aerys thinks Connington failed him he might do the same he did with Owen Merryweather. If he chooses a new hand, it might anger his son and the division of their forces is exactly what we need”.

“But he might call back on Tywin Lannister” answered Jon Arryn “he hasn´t expressed yet who he supports and we can´t have him on the Targaryen´s side. We need to have his support”.

He directed his eyes towards Robert. Ever the teacher, he wanted him to suggest the correct answer. 

Robert Baratheon didn´t seem to realize. He was too busy eating. Ned sighed, he actually knew the answer to this one. Jon Arryn had used the same phrasing when he suggested he should marry Lady Catelyn.

“You want Robert to marry Cersei Lannister?” he asked, tired of politics and movements he didn´t understand. 

Robert´s eyes flashed up.

“No” he said “I´m marrying Lya”.

Both Jon Arryn and Hoster Tully sighed loudly.

“We don´t know if she´s still in King´s Landing or if she´s even alive” said Hoster Tully “Cersei Lannister, on the other hand, is alive and well, and the daughter to one of the most powerful man in all of Westeros”. 

Robert chuckled and Ned saw Jon shift in his chair, he was clearly uncomfortable. 

“But we do know” said Robert, standing up “she was here before. But then the Viper took her and I tried to find her but failed because I wasn´t allowed to go out and chase him like the snake he is. So the answer is no. I´m not marrying Lannister´s daughter. Nor for all of his gold, every last piece of it”.

He left the house slamming the door and pushing over some poor squire that was just standing there.

Ned directed his eyes towards Jon, half angry, half hurt and waited for him to say something. Anything.

Hoster Tully only needed one look from them. 

“Come on, boys” he said, getting up slowly and wincing from the pain “let them talk”. 

One by one they went out of the room, until Ned and Jon where only accompanied by the silent flames of the torches.

“She arrived alone” began Jon slowly, not taking his eyes from Ned “then the Viper arrived with her. She said they held her captive in a tower on the Red Keep and never went into much detail about how she escaped. Things where calmed for a while until I saw her sneaking up to his cell. She tried to kill him. I prevented it and told her it would be better if she stood away from him. She promised Robert she would marry him if he allowed her to write you a letter the next morning. I´m fairly certain she escaped our camp that night, I think with Prince Oberyn. Robert said he had kidnaped her again and proceeded to attack the closest royalist force to our position. He was out numbered or out smarted, I don´t know and he wouldn´t tell me ”. 

Ned sat in silence. Processing everything.

_Lya is alive_ kept ringing in his head. 

“She left you a letter Ned” said Jon quietly “a letter I bothered to read”. 

He passed him a crumbly paper, filled with Lyanna´s quick, nervous handwriting. 

“She´s a traitor Ned”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I hope you are all well. I really hope you liked this one, it was really fun to write and if any of you have seen LOTR, you know where Ned´s idea came from. ;)   
> Thank you very much for reading, please comment and I hope you liked it.


	18. Rhaegar

The moans filled the room.

Oberyn smiled against her inner thigh.

She started to shift.

“Please” she begged him.

He didn´t answer.

 

“Please she said again.

Oberyn sighed loudly, half laughing.

“No more” he said “we have to come out eventually”.

***

Rhaegar paced around his mother´s chambers with a concerned look on his face. It seemed to be his default expression now.

_The tower´s fire._

_The prophecy._

_The king._

The things that kept him eternally worried were few, but concerned the whole world.

_Still, they are your burden to carry._

“When and how do you plan to hold the funerals?” Queen Rhaella asked him softly, almost too quietly for him to hear. Viserys was sleeping, his head on top of her barely swollen belly. They had learned she was with child only after the fire, when the Maester had been checking for wounds.

She hadn´t had any.

Viserys, on the other hand, had suffered burnings on his hands, feet and face. No his mother or him had said a word about it to anyone, least of all Aerys, but they both knew.

_He´s not a real Dragon._

_Not yet, at least._

“I don´t know” Rhaegar answered. He didn´t want to speak about Elia and their children. After all, it seemed disrespectful from him to even say their names.

_It´s my fault, it´s all my fault._

_But it was for the sake of the world._

_For the prince._

He had tried to tell that to Elia. He had asked for her forgiveness and her help.

She hadn´t understood.

_And now she´s gone._

_Along with little Rhaenys and Aegon._

_I´m sorry._

Sometimes, he would confuse a dark haired woman with Elia, his heart would feel with joy and he could pretend it was all just  a nightmare. Neither Rhaenys or Aegon  appeared to him.

He knew why.

_None of them  were a head._

_Aegon wasn´t the prince._

_Rhaenys wasn´t his queen._

He had burned.

So had she.

 

The worse part about it all was Cersei Lannister. Every time he looked at her, falsely smiling, every time he caught her whipping a small tear from her eyes, he remembered. She now roamed the Red Keep, death living on her, her presence the embodiment of mourning.He wished he looked as broken for the death of his family as she did for the death of her twin brother. He would remember that the fire that had killed his wife and children had also taken the life of her brother.

He would also remembered it was possible that her Father was behind it.

_Or even mine._

Someone, he was not sure who, had said it had been Robert Baratheon and the rebels the ones that had caused the fire.

Rhaegar knew better.

If they had spies among them, they would´ve tried to kill him, not his family. Robert Baratheon was many things, but not a child murderer.

Rhaegar Targaryen did not know how wrong he was.

“You should do something with Ser Lewyn present” said his mother softly, caressing Viserys hair with so much care and love it surprised him how she could talk about political moves and death, and at the same time care for her child like a normal mother and not a Queen. Still, she talked loud enough to disturb little Viserys´ sleep. 

 _That is what ruling is all about,_ he realized, _being able to put everything before yourself or the ones you love._

He didn´t know if he would be able.

 _You are,_ a cold voice said.

His father´s voice.

_You abducted Lyanna for the prince. You allowed Elia´s death in order to make the Lannisters happy._

“He´s not visibly angry” continued his mother “and we talked. He said he´d understand it if you burned the three of them, but that he is sure that Oberyn would not like it. He said it was finally up to you. They were Targaryen after all”.

Rhaegar paused for a second.

_Burn them._

It seemed like the gods were mocking him.

“What do you think?” he asked his mother. S

he smiled kindly at her son. Her silver hair disguised the gray hair she had, her pale skin was slightly stained and small wrinkles surrounded her eyes when she smiled. Her lilac eyes hadn´t changed though.

Still bright, still kind, still right.

“I think you should burn them like the Dragons they were” she answered, her eyes proud.

_Dragoness to the bone._

“I want you and Ser Lewyn there” he said after a moment “my wife´s and children funeral will not be a show for court”.

Rhaella nodded. She didn´t ask if Aerys was allowed to go. She knew the answer.

_The fire would just excite him._

He went for the door, where his new guard waited for him, when she called him.

“Rhaegar, two more things before you go”.

He turned.

“Stop trying to talk to your Father. Forget the stupid prophecy and focus on winning this war. It´s your duty”.

Rhaegar nodded.

 _I wished I could,_ he thought, _but I won´t let their deaths be for nothing._

_Lyanna Stark will be ice and I´ll be fire and together we will bring the promised prince to life. It was foretold centuries ago._

He turned and tried to open the door.

“It was your fault Rhaegar” her voice said coldly. “Don´t blame anyone else because you´ll just be lying to yourself. It was your fault your son and daughter died. It´s on you Elia and them burned to death”.

_I know._

_But it had to happen._

_They weren´t dragons._

He didn´t say it to his mother. He knew how she would react.

_She doesn´t understand._

His Father had told him.

“Your mother doesn’t understand the importance of the prince. That´s why she didn´t give you sisters to marry. That´s why she wants you to marry Cersei Lannister and to leave the she-wolf alone”.

_He is right._

A soft knock on the door startled him.

“Who dares to bother me in here?” his mother sighed, clearly annoyed.

A guard came in with a figure wearing a hood. The stranger had mud on their cape and reeked of horse sweat and humidity.

“She said you would wanted to see her immediately, your grace” said the guard, clearly uncomfortable “I found her roaming around the gardens. I thought shewas with someone but when I caught her there was no one with her”.

“This is highly irregular” said the Queen, looking at the guard and not at the woman.

Rhaegar knew who she was.

The guard pushed the figure forward and took her cape.

“She´s already been searched, your grace” he said.

The woman interrupted him.

“Hello, dear husband. I hear I no longer have a sister-wife”.

Lyanna Stark looked at him, a mix of disgust and defiance on her face.

_The prophecy shall be completed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you had a lovely holiday! Thank you very much for reading and please comment! I hope you enjoyed it!


	19. Lyanna VIII

Lyanna sat at the table, eating slowly, her stomach not quite right. She waited for him to come and scream at her. To yell and rage.

After all, it was what she needed.

He came in like a storm, reminding her too much of the man she had been once betrothed. He paced in front of her, his energy invading the room. Everything seemed to point at him, to refer to him, and Lyanna Stark wondered how he could dare believe that he was the center of the universe.

In the North, everybody thought of the others before them.

He stopped in front of the table where she was having her lunch and sighed loudly.

Too loudly.

_Let´s have it then._

“How dare you?” he asked slowly.

_It´s not going to be that easy. I wont let it._

“How dare I what?” she asked with a lady like manner, just like her mother had tried to taught her once.

Rhaegar faced her, fire on his eyes.

 _He resembles his father_ , she realized, _too much._

“How dare you believe you have enough power to send my brother and my pregnant mother away?” he spat at her “you are lucky she has decided not to depart yet”.

“I have all the power I need” Lyanna answered calmly, taking a sip from her wine.

She had trouble swallowing it.

“I´m the crown princess and if Queen Rhaella had actually been against it, don´t you think she would´ve said something?”

He threw her a glance that promised fire and blood.

_How appropriate._

“And not coming to my father´s call when he summons you to court?” he continued, his voice rising “Or didn´t they teach you back at the North that what the Kings wants, he gets? Where the barbarians that raised you so stupid, savage and idiotic they forgot to tell you that it is a Queen´s duty, or would be Queen in your case, because let´s face it you couldn´t be lees of a natural Queen if you tried, TO ATTEND TO THE KING?”

His screams filled the room. His rage almost visible around him. The silence that followed every word, every question rang through the entire chamber. He moved like he owned the room, and Lyanna was just some ornament to whom he was allowed to rage at.

But she wasn´t.

So she stood up.

_You won´t get away with this._

“Shut up, and don´t you dare mention my family, you little shadow of a dragon. Don´t you speak of them like they are beneath you, because it´s your fault they are dead, you weak and pathetic little lizard” she spat at him “And It´s your fault we are in the middle of a rebellion and it is your fault that I am going to be Queen, because you chose me over the mother of your children and now that you are bored with me, now that you no longer find me amusing and charming like you did in the beginning, you go after Cersei Lannister, a girl so cold that doesn´t even mind the fact that you are married or even that you killed her twin brother. So don´t you dare say another word to me like you are better than me. You are the reason I´m here, my dragon prince, to become your obeying and adoring Queen. You have no one to blame buy yourself”.

He grabbed a plate and threw it at the stone wall behind Lyanna.

She didn´t move, she stood her ground and watched him.

_Not a sign of weakness._

“Really mature, my leash. Now I understand why my late sister-wife left you” she said slowly, enjoying how he reacted to her words. Rhaegar stopped for a moment and all of his rage seemed to die at the mention of his dead wife “you are just as crazy as your father. And you can´t even see it. If I had been her, I never would´ve allowed you to even touch my children. But as it turns out, she did, and look where that got her. If I ever am your Queen, you won´t even look at them without my permission. And they will never be your dragon´s heads. They´ll be wolves. Like their mother”.

He threw another plate at her.

The small plate, ceramic with drawings of red flowers and dragons, exploded behind her and the shards flew in every direction. She got a cut on the cheek from one of the shards.

_Not even a wince._

Rhaegar stepped towards her and looked down on her. Eying her cut and the blood that slowly poured out of it like they were water and he a thirsty man. He was an entire head taller than her. His purples eyes shining with rage, looked down on her.

Lyanna saw something change in them, she saw something unleash.

It was too late.

“What would a little six and ten year old wolf whore like you would know?” he whispered “Don´t you think that I don´t listen to the court rumors. They say you just came back because Robert Baratheon found out you weren´t a maid and didn´t want my left overs. And I surely don´t want something as used as you”.

_You don´t know I am not a maid._

“Then you´ll never have your promised prince” Lyanna whispered back to him “Mad King”.

He slapped her with his right hand.

Lyanna felt how the cut got bigger, deeper and far more painful before hitting the ground.

The whole left side of her face was burning, blood started to pour over easily, staining her dress.

Lyanna didn´t even try to touch it.

_It was his dragon ring._

Lyanna tried to get up, but he kicked her.

Once she was fully on the ground, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up. 

He pressed a knife to her throat.

“You´ll give me my dragons” he whispered “Because it is your duty. Because we are fire and ice and because the world would end if you don´t. You won´t give me my dragons because I love you. Because I don´t”.

He pushed her to the table where she´d been eating just moments ago and then tore her dress.

Her face was pressed against the table. The knife pressed now on her cheek.

She kicked him, tried to get free from his grip.

He slashed her hand and then drew a fine line against her neck, just to prove he could.

“Shut up” he said, while he threw his breeches down “You will give my dragons. Even if you don´t want to”.

Lyanna didn´t make a sound.

She wouldn´t give him the satisfaction of begging.

_You´ll burn in hell for this._

*

He backed away from her after he was done.

His hands where half covered in blood, the fury of his eyes lifted. He was on the other corner of the room, like she was some kind of venous snake.

“I´m sorry” he whispered, watching his hands like they didn´t belong to him.

Lyanna watched from the corner to where she had run the second after he had released her.

Her dress was completely torn. She sat there, half naked, marks of the blood of his hands all over her, her face, her neck, her hands, her breasts, her stomach and a small line of blood coming down from her sex.

“I´m so sorry” he whispered, slowly approaching her, tears streaming down his violet eyes, the realization of what he had done slowly sinking in.

She moved even further away.

Rhaegar stopped walking.

“If you ever touch me” Lyanna whispered “even if it is by accident, I´ll kill you” “I´ll cut it all off and then I´ll kill you”.

He left without saying a thing.

Soon, a tongue less boy came for her.

She didn´t allow him to touch her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you "liked" (I don´t know if that is the best word to use) reading this, please comment and thank you very much for reading!! I hope you had a wonderful 2015!!


	20. Cersei

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter has sort of a weird time line. It expands through memories and sort of present. If there´s any confusion, let me know in the comments and I´ll explain.

She stood there, watching the small bottle in silence.

“And this are really it?” she asked him after a moment. “

Yes, those are tears of Lis” answered the man.

“How much?” she finally asked.

_We came together…_

Cersei Lannister was an expert at court manners. She had been taught how to behave since she was born, how to look, what to wear, when and how to speak. She had learned from her mother, her septa and her Father, what was expected of her in every posible occasion.

_Never wear your hair loose to a feast._

_Nobody has to ever see you eating._

_Don´t be too skinny, you´ll look weak and sickly._

_Dark colors are only worn when the situation is serious, your skin would look too pale._

_Always wear something that reminds everybody the house you belong to._

_Never mention you have read certain book._

_Never mention you haven´t read certain book._

_Don´t smile too much._

_Do not frown too much._

The list went on and on. She was never taught how to behave on her brother´s funeral.

Jaime Lannister was buried with all of the honors a member of the Kingsguard could hope for. After all, he had died defending the future Queen and her children. Nobody seemed to notice that he had failed.

_I´m sorry Jaime._

_This is my fault._

She stood alone in front of his corpse on the royal sept.

He was wearing armor. His body had been too burned to present normally, but she had insisted on doing the wake.

Nobody had told her anything.

 _We came into this world together_ , she wanted to scream at him, _and we were supposed to leave it together as well._

But he would never answer her.

He couldn´t answer questions anymore.

Varys approached her on a warm, lonely morning, his soft voice creeping up on her like the spider he was. The tower had burned down more than a month ago, and she now was behaving like everybody wanted her to.

Careless, pretty, the image of joy and happiness.

“We need to talk, m’ lady” he said.

She turned, stone cold, a rehearsed seductive smile on her frozen happy face.

“What?” she asked him.

“Lady Lyanna Stark is back” he simply answered “I think you know what to do”.

_I won´t let you die in vain._

“It needs to be done, my grace”.

_My grace._

The night was dark, not even a candle was lit on her room.

Every moment seemed to remind her of him. The way he smiled, the way he laughed, how his eyes filled with lust every time he caught her wearing his clothes.

The memories of Jaime filled every moment of Cersei´s life since he died.

It seemed to her she thought more about him now that he was dead that when he lived and breathed the same air as she.

The bottle shined on her hand, her trembling pale hand that had touched him for the last time angry.

 _It´s your fault_ , she wanted to scream to him.

Because it hadn´t been hers. She didn’t start the fire, she just knew about it, she just didn´t warn the right person.

Thad had been the deal.

_I told you to leave, I told you what would happen._

_Why did you decided that moment to care about your honor._

She was convinced she had to kill herself.

_We came into this world together Jaime, we were supposed to leave it together._

_We were supposed to rule it together._

But the dragon prince had gotten in the way.

Her beautiful, sad and romantic dragon prince.

The one she was supposed to marry now that he had no wife.

 

They talked often now, he would ran into her on her daily strolls by the gardens, his voice, soft as silk would complement her and together, they shared their melancholy over death.

She noticed the bruises on his long pale hands, the cut on Lyanna´s cheek.

She didn´t ask him.

She knew why they were there.

She had allowed it to occur. It needed to happen.

She would often cry for him, bright tears would cover her face and small, lovely sobs that would make him come closer. Their first kiss was after she had told him about a childhood story about Jaime.

He knew she was lying.

She didn´t care.

 _I´ve done it,_ the thought echoed through her mind.

She felt something like joy.

Tywin Lannister’s entrance to Kings Landing was a serious and cold.

He had missed his son´s funeral.

A chilly wind from the sea had risen up to the Red Keep and although there was only one out of the three royal members waiting for him, Tywin Lannister didn´t seemed displeased. He seemed emotionless as usual.

He looked rather well for a father that had just learned of the death of his first born son. To his side, Kevan Lannister had purple marks under his eyes and had seem to be crying. Cersei waited for him with all the ladies of the court, in a rather small and darkly dressed group.

Rhaegar Targaryen greeted Tywin Lannister kindly. Sunlight falling over his silver head and making it appear river of endless light.

_The things I´ve done for you._

_The people I´ve lost for you._

 

The meeting was over soon, and with just one signal from him, Cersei left the group and went to meet him.

“Your brother is here”.

He didn´t look at her. He didn´t want to.

 

When Tywin Lannister calls, you go to him. It was a simple rule, one she had learned before she was five.

He waited for her in a small, poorly lit room. Varys the spider was with him.

The moment she entered, her father, not lifting his eyes from his letter signaled for Varys to leave the room.

He had been playing cyvasse with Tyrion. The little dwarf lifted his eyes from the board and greeted her with a sad smile.

“Good game, m’ lord” said Varys “but I must be going”.

He left, all of the fabrics from his robes shinning too brightly for Cersei´s eyes.

“You look good” Tyrion said “dear sister”.

Cersei tried to say something.

Tywin interrupted her.

“Stop it” he said, his voice trailing softly, full of a tired anger “we are here because we need to re think our position about this war. It is too late to support the Baratheon boy now, Jaime´s death has pushed us to support the Targaryen King, however unappealing that might be”.

At this point, Cersei lifted her head.

_It´s now._

_Here´s the chance._

Tywin Lannister knew all of this. He just wanted his daughter to say it out loud, so he wouldn´t have to.

“He has no wife now” she stated, and Tyrion´s eyes went straight at her. His mismatching eyes pierced her.

“So?” Tywin asked “He still has the Stark girl, doesn´t he? The one that stated all this mess”.

“No” she answered softly “she´s here but he doesn´t have her. He never will. He raped her and now she doesn´t even acknowledge him. He´ll never have her now”.

“She could be with child” Tyrion commented after a moment, his voice serious and usual grin gone.

“I doubt it” Cersei said after a moment “She would be showing by now. If anything, she´s thinner. I don´t think she´ll bear him children”.

_Lies, for now._

_I still have the poison. Just a few drops will do. If it doesn´t kill her, then surely it would kill the babe._

Silence fell for a moment. And for a second, Cersei believed herself truly lost.

“That means he´ll be looking for a new wife, my dear father” Tyrion stated “and since his majesty the King needs our troops and money. I´m willing to bet he´ll ask my lovely sister to marry him”.

“I already offered her once to him” Tywin Lannister spat “I won´t do it again. She won´t marry Rhaegar Targaryen”.

He passed next to her and held her arm tightly.

“And one more thing” he whispered into her hear “don´t try to kill yourself again. You already made too much of a mess and I need you as a bargaining coin”.

He left the room swiftly.

Tyrion stood up, a nasty, grotesque smile on his face. “Lovely isn´t it, dear sister” he said “to know you killed the only person we both loved for nothing”.

_…But we won´t be leaving this world together._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading!! I would like to thank Baba1994 for sharing the ideas I needed for this chapter. I don´t even want to think about how it would´ve turned out without the help! As usual, I hope you liked it, thank you againg for reading and please comment!!


	21. Eddard II

Eddard watched him silently.

This days, it seemed like the only thing he was doing. He would watch as Robert gave commands, he would watch as they discussed the war at the table, surrounded by old, more experienced men who were in the war only to gain power. He would watch silently, clutching his sister´s letter on his hand, waiting for Jon Arryn to announce to the world that his sister had asked him to leave Robert.

No reason.

Nothing more than a simple leave him.

Not even one word about her.

_Leave him._

_Come with me._

But he couldn´t. Not even if he wanted to, he wasn´t allowed to. He had sworn to fight next to Robert. He had tied himself and his family to this revenge. To the defeat of the mad King and his son.

To win her back.

And now she came out of nowhere and asked him to leave Robert.

 

For days now, he had thought of the letter. Of the implications, of the consequences, of the person who had written it.

Lyanna had been so near he felt he could just catch her if he hurried up. If he rode a little longer, ran a little faster.

Ned Stark knew that it was a stupid feeling, but it gave him a strange peace.

 

Still, he would stay.

The idea of betraying his little sister burned him.

The thought of her burdened him.

The letter kept him awake at night, the scenarios playing in his war tired mind.

What should I do?

What is the right thing to do?

What would´ve father done?

The questions echoed in the empty halls of his lonely mind. He couldn´t turn to anyone there and he couldn´t just shrug off the decision the gods had placed upon him. Nobody there would be able to decide properly.

Robert would choose Robert. It was his nature.

Jon Arryn would choose whatever choice was the politically cleaver choice.

And Lord Tully would…Ned wondered for a moment what would Lord Hoster do, then he remembered his house motto… Lord Tully would choose his family.

_But which of them was family?_

Which side represented his real family?

The men that didn´t share a single drop of blood with him, nor place of birth, but that where willing to die with him for the wrongs that had been done only to him, or his sister, the little girl he had held in his arms and played with, the young woman that now asked him to come with her?

Lyanna didn´t support Robert, but did that make her a Targaryen?

Did the fact that she didn´t want anything to do with Robert made her a traitor?

Had she forgave them, the people who took their world and shattered it?

Had she forgotten about their father, with his warm, kind smile?

About Brandon, with his loud laugh and mocking grin?

About herself?

 

Ned had heard that when one of the smaller banner men had said he wouldn´t side with Robert or with the Crown, Robert had laughed and then smashed the man´s head with his hammer.

Ned hadn´t said anything, it was, after all, just a rumor, but a very possible one. He could see Robert smashing someone´s head for so little. He had witnessed thing like that before. It made him sick.

Ned watched as his childhood friend drank another full goblet in one gulp.

He didn´t agree with many things he did. And killing men just because they didn’t choose you was at the top of the list.

The letter came to his mind again.

At the end he had decided that he would burn it.

He just hadn´t come around to doing it yet.

 

Robert continued talking and his men continued nodding. The world didn´t seem to notice his problems, his internal soliloquies. All around him, life kept going. At an unsettling fast pace.

“We have to discuss King´s Landing” said a man, and everybody agreed “we have to decide how to seize it from the Targaryens. If we win King´s Landing, we win the war”.

Loud cheers filled the room, people jumped and screamed, and Robert punched the table with his goblet, demanding for more wine.

Ned stayed still.

“Not necessarily” said Jon Arryn, his voice as unmoved as ever. He never participated in this loud hopeful celebrations, always dead serious.

 _War is no child´s play_ , he had often said.

_And yet, to this men, we are no older than babes._

“It is possible that Rhaegar moved his brother and the new babe Rhaella had away from the city and from danger. If we want to win the war, we need to make sure that there are no Targaryens left to claim the Iron Throne”.

Ned looked right at him.

Silence fell over the table, a dark sentence as the words slowly drowned in the air, their meaning sinking into the drunken clouded heads of the men.

“Surely” Ned said slowly, looking right in the eyes of the man that raised him like his own son “surely, you don´t mean you want to have his children and his brother killed”.

Jon Arryn´s face was stone, yet Ned caught a glimpse of something in his eyes.

_For the old gods and the new, please let it be remorse._

_Please make him unsay the words he has just said._

“Yes, Eddard” he said in his most kind and paternal voice. It reminded Ned of a father telling his son that their pet must be put down “if we want to assure peace for the seven kingdoms, we have to make sure that there will be no Targaryen left to claim the throne”.

“Even if that mean killing babes?” Ned asked, his voice dry, filled with anger.

A tense silence fell as the two men stared at each other.

Robert laughed, his drunken shrieks clashing and breaking the silence, yet the tension remained.

“No need to put that side scowl on your face, now Ned, it doesn´t really matter much now” he spluttered, Ned didn´t know if he now was drunk on wine or power.

“What do you mean?” he forced himself to ask, his knuckles white with the pressure.

“What I mean, dear Ned, is that the problem´s takin care of. Don´t ask me I don´t know how they did it, but they did. The dragon´s spawn are dead. Done for. There are rocks more alive than the dragon´s spawn Elia Martell pushed out of her belly”.

Robert was standing up, challenging him to say something, to show his anger.

He whispered his answer, his steel eyes not leaving Robert´s for a moment.

“How dared you? How could you support the death of more people?”

Robert´s smile was cruel. He went on, his soft voice slithering up to Ned like a snake.

“I reckon the little brother and the other babe we heard off are soon to follow. No need to worry now, your conscience will be fucking clean. You couldn´t stop it, we didn´t tell you cause we knew you´d be too fucking sad about it”.

Ned stood up. Rage ringing through his body, letter clutched.

“YOU HAD THEM KILLED AND TOLD ME NOTHING?”

That was the moment Robert started to yell.

“YOU DIDN´T NEED TO KNOW! BESIDES, IT´S NOT LIKE YOU, SAINT NED TELL US EVERYTHING. YOU ALWAYS KEEP TO YOUR NORTHERNERS AND ALWAYS TALK ABOUT GOING BACK AFTER THE WAR ENDS. YOU MAKE A SCOWL EVERY TIME WE EVEN TALK ABOUT KILLING SOMETHING AND YOU SEND THE ENEMY LETTERS ASKING ABOUT LYA, WIYHOUT EVEN TELLING ME”.

His screams filled the room, shook the tent to the ground. Whatever the touched, started to fly. Robert´s tantrum filled the space around him.

Eddard was reminded of a child.

“What!?” Ned asked in disbelief.

_How can he know about her letter?_

“You even told me, you idiot” Robert screamed back at him “you told me you got a letter from them at the beginning, and that means you sent one before. When they killed Rickard and Brandon, it said that they had her safe and that they would deliver her to you if you left me and pledged allegiance to the throne”.

_That letter._

That one he had burned.

He had read it to the few northerners that were with him at the time and used it to call the banners. That had been the letter that asking for peace, had started a war.

Ned had forgotten about that small, insignificant piece of paper that informed him that two members of his pack, as Brandon used to call their family when they were younger, had been killed by the king and that a third, the only She-wolf of the pack, was in danger.

“You think I keep correspondence with them?” he howled.

_He already thinks I am a traitor, even if I haven´t actually betrayed him yet._

“I know it” Robert whispered “because you don´t want Lya to come home with me. You don´t want her with the people she loves, you want her with the dragon, because, like your Father, you only want power”.

Ned chuckled after a moment.

“You aren´t her family” he whispered “I am”.

Robert moved and Ned went to meet him.

“And you´ll never be. Because she doesn´t love you. And I´ll die before selling her off to a child murderer”.

“That can be easily arranged”.

The fight was short.

Robert tried to punch him in the face, Ned did punch him back. Then Robert tackled him and started to unload his red fists on his face. It took Jon Arryn, Hoster Tully and three other men to separate them.

“GET OUT” Robert screamed at him, while he was being held back by his men “GO BACK TO THE FUCKING NORTH YOU COWARD”.

Ned left the tent alone.

 

He stood outside the tent for only a moment.

The taste of blood filled his mouth his eye and cheek swallowing and felt like his whole face was being trailed by dancing flames.

He clutched the letter.

He now understood why she didn´t give him a reason.

She didn´t have to.

Eddard Stark didn´t belong down there with all these southern schemers.

He belonged with her.

A wolf couldn´t live with snakes and murderers.

A wolf belonged with his pack.

Silently, Howland Reed came to stand next to him. The little man said nothing.

He just handed him a piece of paper.

Lyanna had written him a letter.

_Of all people, she chooses the right one._

“Let´s go find her”.

***

She sat in front of a fire, waves of heat clashing against her pale skin.

Lyanna Stark couldn´t take it anymore.

She stood up and went to stand next to the window, the cold breeze refreshing her face.

Still, it was too warm for her taste.

She missed the biting cold of the north that assured her that warm blood ran threw her veins. She missed the life that hid in the freezing stillness of the north.

Above all, she missed her pack.

Varys didn´t follow her. “

What are we going to do about it?” she asked him softly.

Varys made one of his over dramatic pauses.

“You´ll have to trust me my lady” be began.

“Of course” she said.

_I don´t._

_I´ve talked to Tyrion Lannister._

***

The news didn´t seem to affect him. His violet eyes raised to meet Varys´s and just reflected peace.

Cersei clutched the small bottle that she now carried around everywhere.

_He seems grateful._

“She´s missing, my prince”.

Rhaegar Targaryen smiled with his usual, sadness filled smile.

Cersei hated it.

“Again”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter has three characters, but as you probably noticed the main one is Ned. Each part takes place a little after the last one sorry if it´s not very clear! Anyway, thank you for reading! I hope you liked it and please comment!!!


	22. Doran

Mellario walked elegantly in front of him, caressing her slightly swollen belly. Watching her, Doran suddenly was remembered of his mother, of Olyvar and Mors.

_My forever young brothers._

Then he thought of Arianne, trying to forget how afraid he had been for her when Mellario first told him about the child.

He tried not to remember the ones that had come before his little Arianne.

He failed.

_Let this child live._

_Please._

She paced, closing the letter and putting it down on the table near her. The silk of her diaphanous dress fluttering around her. Doran had the impulse to grab her hand.

He didn´t.

“What to do you think we should do?” he asked, watching her.

Half of the time Doran Martell laid his eyes on his beautiful wife, it was to marvel at how exotic, how out of place she seemed when she was near him. He would admire her high cheeks and full lips, her soft, perfect mahogany skin and smart coal eyes.

The other half of the time it was to try to decipher what she was going to say to him before actually she said it.

This time belonged to the latter group.

“Do you trust this man?” she simply asked as if she was asking him whether he liked eating fish or pork.

“No” he answered “and I am almost certain that he had something to do with Elia and her children´s death”.

“Then don´t take the girl in, no matter in how much danger she is” she said, casually. She rolled her pretty eyes at him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

_Oh, I know what you are getting at._

“It would be better to have her in our power. She´s important to the both of the would-be kings, whoever has protected her, will have the king´s gratitude, and right now, that´s a far more important thing than if I like or don´t like a man I´ve never heard of” Doran said, as Mellario smiled “besides, before this whole affair began, she was set to become my brother´s wife, before Rhaegar Targaryen locked her up in a tower. Elia herself had arranged the match”.

Mellario´s smile died.

"Wasn´t there a rumor that she had seduced him?"

_There was._

_Elia even wrote me about it._

_Then, after the girl´s family died, Elia wrote again._

_It had all been a lie._

Doran Martell didn´t like the idea of the once rumored mistress of his late sister´s husband being near him. But again, not liking something shouldn´t matter when it came to gaining political power.

His mother had taught him that.  

“In one of her last letters, Elia said that Oberyn had taken a liking on the girl” Mellario said, her face turning dark.

“Even more than liking” Doran remembered.

_I trust, dear Doran; that he has finally found his match. The girl is pure energy and rebelliousness. The rumors I´ve heard about her remind me very much of Oberyn himself._

_On our little political arrangement with the north, we might´ve found the only woman in Westeros capable of making Oberyn fall truly in love with her._

_I just hope she has the patience to do it._

“Oberyn was present when they killed Lord Stark and his eldest son, Eddard, wasn´t him?” she asked, as if forcing Doran to say the obvious out loud. 

“Brandon” Doran corrected her softly, his face turning grimmer “Eddard is the second son. Brandon is, was the eldest”.

Mellario lifted an eyebrow, annoyed.

“He was” her voice filled with polite frustration.

Mellario sighed and stood up straight. Her hand went to rest on top of her stomach, as if the danger the statement insinuated was tangible.

_Oberyn might do many questionable things, but he doesn´t abandon the people he loves._

_And he is in love with the girl, there´s no doubt about it._

“We´ll be receiving her” Doran said.

Mellario looked at him, the question left unsaid.

He answered it any way.

“No”.

***

Doran Martell walked through the gardens and halls swiftly. The mix of spicy air, soft breeze and fresh coldness of the night usually calmed him.

Not this night.

He wished to be back in his chambers for the hundredth time that night, lying next to Mellario, feeling the warmth of her body next to him.

But he had to come.

_For the children._

Before he left, he couldn´t help himself and stopped only for a moment in the girls chamber´s. They were all in a tangled mess, sleeping all in the same bed. Arianne´s hair mixed with Nym´s and Obara slept slightly hugging Tyene. Sarella was in the middle of the mess the girls had caused. She was hugging one of Tyene´s legs.

Their room oozed peace.

 He walked outside the castle and into the twisting and oppressive streets that surrounded his fresh fortress. He ended up in a small shack, on the outsides of the village. He could almost feel Aero’s disapproval. Still, the captain didn´t say a word. He knew his advice wasn´t needed.

The house was small, it´s ambient suffocating, the heat mixed with the smell of dust and abandonment forced Doran to cough. 

Sitting by a dust filled table, a hooded figure laughed. 

The candle in front of her flickered and part of the dust was lifted. 

It was her turn to cough. 

Doran Martell watched Lyanna Stark with interest. 

She wasn´t exactly what Doran was expecting. 

She was young, thin. 

So frail looking she seemed like she would break in any moment.

She wasn´t beautiful, far from breathtaking, but something in her persona, it interested him. 

It was her eyes. 

_ Cold as winter. _

_ Old as mine.  _

_ S harp as valyrian steel. _

The little girl might´ve looked delicate, but underneath, she was all iron. 

“Follow me”. 

She stood up, her dress adjusting to her shape.

***

Oberyn stumbled off the horse half drunk, half dehydrated. A pretty dark haired, pale skinned girl followed him.

Doran frowned.

His brother wasn´t known to have preferences when it came to the people who shared his bed, but Doran couldn´t remember how many times Oberyn had brought a pale girl-or boy- with him.

She was quite the beauty. Soft face, full of half sensual, half innocent shapes. 

Oberyn, Doran recalled, had often said he preferred experienced lovers. He said he didn´t mind not being the first, as long as it was good.

Doran clenched his fists.

_She looks like her._

 

“BROTHER” Oberyn screamed “I´ve gotten lonely up in the North. I´ve also gotten hungry. I would very much like a scorched lizard maybe side it along with some fried salamander, just to feast in honor of our dear sister”.

He almost spat the last part.

 

_So you know._

_Good._

Doran held out his hand, but two little girls ran past him.

Somehow, Oberyn managed to pick both of them up and began to turn, exceptionally fast and coordinately for a man that had just barely dismounted without falling on his face.

The pretty girl was soon forgotten.

“Any news I should know about?” he asked, walking next to Doran, still holding Tyene and Nymeria “any interesting guests we are holding on any of our lovely castles?”

_Yes._

_Lady Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, who is with child._

_Possibly yours._

_Possibly not._

“No”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo I´m going out of town for a couple of weeks so I won´t be posting as often, but I´ll try to post a new chapter before I leave in a few hours. Any way, thank you very much for reading, please comment and I hope you liked it!!


	23. Ned IV

He felt like he was floating, while the world around him was finally beginning to set in the position it should have always had.

As he approached the tower, peace filled him like air.

He felt almost weightless.

The tower was a lonely figure, raising from the dry earth like the last finger of a struggling buried hand. It wasn´t very tall and seemed rather thick for a tower this South. It was surrounded by dry mountains and a small pond laid before it. Ned approached it silently, slowing down his poor horse for the first time since they had parted ways with Doran Martell.

The guards were at the base of the tower, standing straight.

Waiting for him.

At his side, Howland began to draw his knifes.

_There´s no need to do that._

_At least that´s what I´ve been told._

There were two guards and both had white capes, he counted them as he dismounted. Ned needed a moment to place them correctly.

_Ser Oswell Whent._

_Ser Lewyn Martell, Prince of Dorne._

They walked away from the entrance crossed the spears they carried right in front of Ned.

“Don´t you even think that is going to stop me” he said as he draw his sword out.

Ned knew Howland had his knifes out, just as he knew the other men he had brought with him were drawing their swords out. He could hear the sound of steel against the leather.

“Doran said there was going to be only one” Ser Lewyn said, the tone of the threat clear.

His eyes angrily watching Ned´s men.

“Leave him be, will you” a softer voice than he remembered said.

Ned looked away from them.

Lyanna now stood at the entrance, half supported by Ser Arthur Dayne, who also wore a white cape.

She was different.

Completely different.

And yet she was the same girl he had crossed half the country for.

She seemed older, wiser, than the girl he had left at Harrenhal in what seemed like an eternity ago. Her hair was longer, her cheeks more prominent, she seemed taller and skinnier.

_But she´s still so very small._

_She´s still our little she-pup._

Ned hadn´t imagined their meeting before. He hadn´t pictured it in any possible way. Every time he thought of Lyanna, either before, when he was fighting alongside Robert, or after her letter, when he silently looked for the man she had named, he always seemed to imagine her alone and frozen in time, the same as he had left her.

Probably still wearing the damned flower crown.

She was paler than usual, even her often flushed cheeks were gone, blood completely drained from her face. Yet her smile was one of the brightest Ned had ever seen. It irradiated light, shinning brighter than the sun. Her eyes were clear, soft as he remembered them.

The eyes of their father.

Our eyes.

 

A small, single tear made its way down her slightly sunken cheek.

On the back of Ned´s head, he figured that he probably looked bad too. He hadn´t eaten much and had been sleeping less than two hours a day. He was also crying.

But he didn´t notice.

The peace he had felt, the deafening sense of calmness that had filled him as he approached the tower faded.

He only saw how her other hand resting on her stomach.

Her swollen, child-bearing stomach.

“Lya” he said, moving the spears and slowly approaching her.

“Oh, little Lya” he mumbled as he came closer and closer “little pup...”

“What´s been done to you?”

*

He sat in front of her as she absently moved her hand over her belly.

The sun was hiding behind the golden mountains of Dorne, the sky had turned a mix of violet and pink and his sister´s room came alive with the light, the cold stone´s shinning like gold, slowly beginning to warm the bedroom.

The guards had left, allowing them to have the privacy that they deserved. Neither of them had said a thing.

He hadn´t asked about Brandon and their Father. Lyanna might´ve looked more mature and wiser than him, but he knew; just like he had known why she hadn´t left a reason on the letter, that she hadn´t recovered from it.

He also knew he shouldn´t ask who the father was.

He looked down to his hands and waited.

He waited for his sister to finally feel completely safe. It was the first time she had family next to her since the deaths of Brandon and Lord Rickard.

Finally she opened her mouth.

“And how is the world now, Ned?” she asked “still as fucked up as when I disappeared?”

Ned stayed silent for a moment.

“I got married” he whispered, almost to himself.

She heard anyway.

The three words suddenly made sense to Ned. The whole weight of their meaning fell upon him.

_I am a married man._

Lyanna opened her eyes and the shadow of her wolfish grin passed through her face.

Ned wondered if she´d ever be able to smile like she used to.

She lifted her eyebrows, waiting for him to go on.

For some reason, Ned began to feel flustered, he felt his face warming up, his blood making its way to his cheeks.

“It wasn´t a really big or pretty ceremony. Jon Arryn married her sister Lysa at the same time. And you know how all of them pray to the seven, so it wasn´t in front of a Weirdwood or anything remotely like that” he spluttered as fast as he could.

Lyanna watched him for a moment, her smile gone and her dark grey eyes slowly freezing.

“You married Catelyn Tully, didn´t you?”

He didn´t answer.

“You married Brandon´s betrothed”.

“I need to” Ned whispered as quietly as he could. He knew Lyanna could hear him perfectly well, he just didn´t want her to “her father said he and his men would join us if his eldest daughter married me and if the young one married Jon Arryn. We needed the swords and the resources the Riverlands gave us. Besides, Lady Catelyn was set to marry Brandon. I couldn´t just leave her after our father gave hers his word”.

Lyanna almost smiled and placed a hand on his cheek, her eyes filled with love only for a moment.

Then they turned dark again and her face filled with a mix of regret and solemnity.

“What made you leave him?” Ned waited a moment before answering.

“He killed his children Lya”. Ned squeezed her hand. “He killed three innocents, just because they were in his way. He didn´t kill them with his bare hands, but he had them killed and he didn´t even bother to tell me. He just did it, because someone told him he had to”.

Ned´s face was dark and the shadows on it weren´t from the fading sun.

“Hadn´t we seen enough death?” he asked her “Hasn´t there been enough blood wasted?”

Lyanna smiled sadly.

“No Ned”.

In that moment she looked like their father.

She looked too much like their father.

And Ned Stark knew she had aged too much in too little time.

 

 

 

“I´ve thought of names” she whispered after a while, while she played with the fabric of her dress’s sleeve.

“Have you?” he asked, slightly smiling. Still feeling the anger as he clutched his fists.

“I would like your help”.

It seemed so unlike that Lyanna would ask him about baby names.

Ned chuckled.

She blinked and rubbed her eyes.

“I´m tired” she whispered “come lie down with me Neddie. Like we used to do when we were kids”.

They had done that very few times.

Brandon, Lyanna and Eddard had slept all in the same bed the night Lady Lyarra died. Benjen had joined them when their father had first announced he would sent Ned away. The last time had been the night before he left Winterfell.

That had been about ten years ago.

She turned to the wall and Ned, slightly embarrassed climbed into bed with her.

He was grateful of the seemingly endless darkness that surrounded them.

She took his hand without asking and put it around her.

Her voice was soft, her words whispered more to the stone wall than to him.

Still, she sounded more awake than ever.

 _You did this on purpose_.

“It´s a boy” Lyanna said softly, clutching his hand in hers “I feel it. I know it”.

_I  would bet on it._

“If he has…” she whispered, as if she was preparing for a storm to strike “if he has dark skin or dark eyes, I thought of Noam, the son of Nymeria”.

“What do you mean if?”

“If I happen to give birth to a northerner, a little wolf pup, he´ll be Brandon”.

_Why if Lyanna?_

“If…” she began “if…”

Ned felt her stiffen beneath his grip.

 _No_.

A small sob escaped her.

_Please tell me it´s not true._

_Please tell me they were lying._

_Tell me he never hurt you._

“If it´s a boy with silver hair or violet eyes, I want to name him Daemon”.

She could barely articulate a word. Her sobs filled the room and her tears slithered through her face.

Ned held her tighter.

She kept on crying.

Even if she cried the whole night and the next day, and the day after that, he would held her.

He would held her for as long as it took.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sooo I am very happy to be back!! I also posted another chapter on my other Lyanna and Oberyn story (insert shameless self promotion here) so feel free to check that out if you want. As always, thank you very much for reading, please comment and I hope you liked it!!  
> =)


	24. Oberyn VII

He woke up early that day.

Too early.

Next to him, a dark haired boy with ivory skin slept.

_Great._

_Even HE looks like her._

Oberyn dressed himself and walked out of the chamber silently.

He wandered around the castle, looking for something to entertain himself with.

He found nothing.

Half tempted to wake up one of his daughters, or maybe all four of them, Oberyn passed in front of Doran´s solar.

The door was open and it made the voices carry cleanly outside the room. He could hear them as clearly as if he was standing in the room. He stopped to listen.

“You weren´t supposed to come here, Lord Stark. If you needed anything, which was difficult considering we gave you everything you needed before you left, you were supposed to send Arthur Dayne or maybe even Prince Lewyn, alone, because they know how to move around Dorne without calling attention to themselves.

“I know prince Doran, but…”

_Did he just say that?_

“Lord Stark?” asked Oberyn, entering the solar.

_I know I´m sleepy but I can´t be that out of it. When have Starks come to Dorne?_

Doran directed his eyes towards him, big and shocked. They almost seemed scared of him. Eddard Stark, on the other hand, seemed offended by his interruption, and clenched his fists when he saw him.He seemed to mumble something among the lines of “prick”, but again it could´ve been pick or tick or kick or maybe even tit, Oberyn was too sleepy to even try to understand his northerner accent.

_More like dialect._

“BUT, prince Doran” he continued “she needs the help now, and since we didn´t know where you were, Ser Arthur went to Sun Spear and Prince Lewyn went to villages or castles near the area to look for a Maester and I was sent here, to inform you of her situation and to ask for a healer”.

“Her?” Oberyn asked, but a dark shadow had fallen over Doran´s face and he didn´t pay attention to Oberyn anymore.

“And you left Lady Lyanna alone, in her state?”

_LADY LYANNA._

Oberyn was suddenly completely awake, at the same time, the voices of Ned and Doran seemed to come from so far away he felt like they were talking and he was underwater, drowning, while the echo of Lyanna´s name resonated through his entire being.

“No. We left her with Howland Reed, one of our closest friends, who happens to understand some things about herbs and had helped to reduce the bleeding and part of her pain. I didn´t leave my sister alone, prince, not like your brother”. 

Oberyn directed his half lost eyes towards Ned.

_ Well he´s angry.  _

But that didn´t matter, he didn´t explain a thing,  Oberyn turned to Doran.  He felt strangely dense, aware of his entire body as he approached his brother.

“I asked you if there was anything you needed to tell me” he said calm as ever, his voice sounding like a stranger´s “And you said no”. 

He struck Doran right in the face, all of his force carried in that single blow. He felt Doran´s nose breaking right under his knuckles. Doran fell backwards, still conscious and spat blood on the stone floor.

Oberyn wondered if he missed the carpet on purpose, then he turned towards the angry man of the north.

“Lord Eddard, we´ll be leaving as soon as I get my belongings”.

 

*

_"She´s pale, weak, barely eats, cold as ice._

_She bleeds often and sleeps most of the time._

_Now she can´t get up properly"_

Ned Stark had told him while they walked away from Doran´s cellar.

His hand was probably hurting, a nasty bruise beginning to form. Plus, the skin on his knuckles had been slightly damaged and now they were bleeding. He could see the blood passing through the bandage he had improvised while raiding the maester´s apothecary.

Still, he didn´t feel it.

He wouldn´t have felt if the chopped off his head.

Howland was by her side, he held on to her hand.

_Her ivory hand._

Ned pushed him inside and grunted something to Howland.

Oberyn was still glued to her figure. Panic filled him and he was frozen on the spot.

 _She´s so quiet._ And it seemed so fucking wrong. Lyanna Stark wasn´t the type who would stand still, she possessed a spirit like a waterfall, always moving, always changing and evolving. To watch her being still was like being in a nightmare. It wasn´t natural.

Howland looked up at Ned and began to say something.

Oberyn didn´t hear them.

She lifted her eyes, locking them with him.

The babe in her arms moved and she looked down, releasing her hand from Howland and putting the little mouth against her breast.

Oberyn almost fell to his knees.

She looked up again, her face still, evaluating his answer.

Everything seemed to disappear. He was left alone with Lyanna and her child.

He remembered his night with her, counting the days, the weeks, the months over and over.

_It fits._

Suddenly the quietness of Lyanna fell in to place. It was completely natural and beautiful. He´d never seen anything as beautiful as Lyanna holding her child.

_Our child._

The question still came to his lips and left them in the form of a whisper. He didn´t know how much it took him to formulate it. To him it seemed like an eternity trapped between two moments.

“Is it mine?”

Lyanna smiled.

_Sadly._

_Why is she smiling sadly?_

The remaining color from her face was drained. Her eyes widened for a moment and she seemed to hold on the creature tighter. Then she fell backwards. Ned went to his side and graved his shoulder. He pushed him to Lyanna´s bed side and threw him.

“Help her” he said, his voice angry and bitter “or I swear to the old gods and the new I´ll kill you”.

Oberyn looked up to him. He took Lyanna´s hand. It was cold. Oberyn grabbed the blanket that covered her and saw it.

_Blood._

Too much blood for her crimson wave. It was just TOO much blood. The smell invaded the entire room.

_Blood and Roses._

Oberyn turned towards Eddard and just looked at him straight in the eyes.

_How stupid can you be?_

Lyanna´s eyes fixated themselves on Ned, her hand went to him. He took it.

“Promise me Ned” she mumbled “promise me”.

She closed her eyes, calmly, her hand falling delicately, as if she did it on purpose.

Ned Stark froze and his eyes searched Oberyn´s.

“Do something” he asked, all rage gone, replaced with urgency “PLEASE”.

Oberyn´s voice was stone cold.

“I´ll need two goblets of boiling water and at least a pint of cold water, you´ll need to boil it first. I need you to mix the boiling water with a handful of the herbs I brought. Ask Reed to tell you which ones, I´m assuming he´ll recognize them. Also I need the cleanest rags you have, at least three of them, if you don´t have clean rags, boil them in either water or wine”.

Ned stood there for a second.

“MOVE”

*

Somehow, after all, she was still alive.

Oberyn sat by her side, checking her pulse and her temperature. Her pulse was weak, but at least it was there and her face was slowly regaining color, as well as her hands. Blood was finally flowing through her body and not spilling in between her legs. Down stairs, in what seemed like a whole different continent, Oberyn heard how Arthur Dayne and his uncle Lewyn arrived to the tower. Eddard Stark had told him they had also left looking for someone to treat Lyanna.

She seemed strangely calm for someone who was fighting for her life. Oberyn had seen countless dying souls fight, move, sweat and talk, he didn´t remember one of them going happily, silently.

_Death isn´t supposed to be easy._

Somewhere in the room, the babe quietly howled, as if it were politely asking for his mother.

Oberyn lifted his eyebrows and went to check it.

Someone had decided the child´s place was in a drawer stuffed with blankets and pillows.

_Gods._

He picked up the child and looked at it. It seemed to calm down and slightly shrugged, accommodating himself on Oberyn´s arms. The babe looked entirely like Lyanna. Dark brown hair, pale skin, it´s eyes were still closed, but Oberyn was willing to bet that they would end up being some dark form of grey.

_All Lyanna._

But maybe there was something in the shape of the eyes that reminded him of himself, or in the hair color. Maybe it wasn´t dark brown, but a paler shade of dornish black.

He felt the warmth that accompanied the felling of picking his daughters run inside him. While holding the child, Oberyn Martell just knew it belonged with him.

“And who are you?” he quietly asked the babe “are you a fighter like your mother, a genius like your father or are you slow, like both of your uncles?”

“Hopefully, he´ll be honorable like his family” Eddard´s voice came from the door.

Oberyn looked up, still holding the babe.

“He?” he asked, slightly amazed. He hadn´t thought to check.

Joy filled him and he looked back at the little boy. In a second every possible scenario ran through his mind. His first steps, his first word, his first _Dad_. Suddenly he was aware of the new infinity of first that laid in his future. He smiled as if he were simple.

 _He_ Oberyn repeated the word, as if tasting it in his mouth. He said it again and again, like it was a word in a foreign language he was trying to master. Ned looked at Oberyn as if he was going crazy. Truth be told, he was probably was.

“He´s my first son” Oberyn explained after a moment.

_My first born son._

_My first little Viper._

Ned´s face turned grim and dark. Not that Oberyn would´ve noticed.

“So you don´t know” his voice seem to come from afar, filled with kind pity. All of the anger was drained from Ned´s face. He now seemed to regret every scowl, growl or push he had given Oberyn in the past few hours. He almost seemed sorry for him. Oberyn waited for the explanation, the joy slowly dying inside him.

“He might not be yours”.

The babe turned, pressing his head against Oberyn´s chest.

He still felt his warmth against his own skin.

_He might not be yours._

He waited to feel something.

 _Nothing_.

“Who?”

Ned approached his sleeping sister. He held her hand in his. It still was so extremely pale. His eyes were full of regret and love, and for a moment Oberyn though he saw shame, not for what Lyanna had done, but for what Eddard himself had allowed to happen.

“Rhaegar Targaryen”.

_Not him._

He didn´t look down, to the little face where he had pretended to recognize his own traits.

“She didn´t really say it, but she was raped by him”.

_No._

_Not that way._

 

He pictured the warm child with Targaryen eyes, looking at him like the scum that might be his father used to. Eyes filled with a false but truly felt melancholy.

Ned´s face was serious, and he silently, gently took the babe from Oberyn´s arms.

Oberyn stood there for a moment, fighting not to imagine how it had gone down.

_You fucking piece of shit._

_You bastard._

He left the room running, practically flew down the stairs and locked eyes with him, barely registering the fact that there was a strange woman with them. His hands itched, waiting for the contact with flesh.

“You piece of shit” he whispered at him.

Once again in that day, he felt flesh and bone crack under his knuckles. This time it didn´t feel like it was enough. Arthur stumbled and Oberyn kicked him in the chest.

“YOU WERE ALWAYS WITH HIM” he yelled “Elia herself said it” he spat in his face “you followed the scum everywhere. YOU WERE ALWAYS WITH HIM”.

_I was supposed to be with her._

He didn’t bother to explain. Arthur said nothing. His nose bleed onto his mouth and stained him. He didn´t move. Oberyn began to hit him again. Tears of anger fell from his eyes.

“YOU MUST´VE KNOWN AND YOU DID NOTHING. YOU PROBABLY HEARD HIM. YOU PROABLY HEARD HER. YOU WERE THERE AND YOU DID NOTHING. NOTHING”.

_And I slept with her a thousand times…_

Around him, there was silence. Not even Prince Lewyn moved.

_…while he raped her._

“YOU LEFT HER ALONE AND JUST STOOD THERE WHILE HE RAPED HER”.

“HE RAPED HER AND YOU DID NOTHING AND NOW SHE MIGHT DIE. YOU JUST STOOD THERE WHILE HE KILLED HER. YOU LEFT HER ALONE”.

_I left her alone._

“YOU ALLOWED HIM TO KILL HER”.

 _I killed her_.

“YOU ALLOWED ME TO KILL HER”.

*

He sat with Eddard. Arthur Dayne was sleeping and prince Lewyn was talking to the healer they had brought from Sun Spear.

“She´s not going to die” Ned whispered “the woman said that she´s going to be alright, that the complications were because she´d had a stressful pregnancy and was malnourished because she couldn´t properly eat. She said something about her being too young, too weak”.

_It´s all my fault._

“The woman also said that if it weren´t for you, she would´ve died. You saved her life Oberyn”.

_After I almost killed her._

Oberyn looked at Ned.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because it´s the truth”. Ned´s face was serious and cold as ice. “And because you need to know that if you even touch her again or if you touch him, if you hurt either one of them…” he said.

Oberyn finished for him.

“You´ll kill me”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI!!! school just started back here and I´m a going to be specially busy this year so I´ll probably update at bit less frequent than usual, but I have at least another chapter that I expect will be ready by next friday. I hope you liked this one, please comment and thank you very much for reading.  
> =)


	25. Lyanna IX

_His name is Jon._

_And his eye´s are as pale as a winter morning, like Bran´s, like mother´s._

 

_His name is Jon._

_And he´s all mine._

Lyanna began to stand after three days, always holding Jon in her arms, Ned next to her, watching and offering to take him from her if she became tired.

She never did.

But Ned still stood there, he loved the little pup.

He would pick him up even if Jon was sleeping and would slowly walk around the room, telling him stories about the north. He would smile at him and slightly jump just to get him to sort of smile at him. He would only give Jon up if she was asking for him.

He also slept right next to her.

His familiar warmth would chase away the fire of the nightmares and tears. Ned´s cold northern body next to her soothed the burning of the little girl that had turned to iron too fast.

She was immensely grateful.

Somehow, in the middle of the nightmare they were living on; the world where half of their family was dead, where she had been raped and his childhood best friend was a murderer, hope began to linger. Their shared nights broke the nightmare and with Jon´s soft breaths in the back, they quietly imagined the world where everything had gone how it should´ve.

 _In a perfect world_ , Ned had begun to whisper, _Brandon would´ve been even wilder._

_Father would have accepted it._

_Mother would have lived._

_Benjen would have known her._

_I wouldn´t be Lord of Winterfell._

_And you would´ve been free._

Both of them imagined it, their eyes gleaming with the tears of the world that could´ve been, drowning in the sensuality of the perfect reality, where there was nothing but the North and the Starks never grew up and remained children forever. They lost themselves on the endless joy of their unreal never ending childhoods.

 _We´ve grown_ , Lyanna realized, _we´ve become adults weeping for something that never excited._

She waited until Ned realized the same. It took him just a little bit longer.

“Lya” Ned whispered when he did “we need to”.

_I know Neddie._

She began training the next morning.

He left her bed that night.

It was time to return to the nightmare that was their reality.

Lyanna caught him when she was already to spar, the movements coming to her like a forgotten childhood lullaby. The strength slowly returned to her body, her hands, arms and legs waking up from their death induced slumber. Under the healer´s and Ned´s worrying eyes, she regained the control and normality of her body as Jon´s bright pale eyes watched her.

That night she couldn´t sleep and just relaxed while hearing Jon´s even breaths. She was facing the stone wall, the heat of the room bothering her once more.

She heard him move the door and smiled slightly annoyed. She knew Ned was going to be a great father and she also knew how much he loved the little pup, but waking up in the middle in the night just to hold him was too much.

A small beam of light entered and Lyanna held still, pretending to sleep. She wanted to surprise Ned in the act, just so she could laugh at him latter. Lyanna waited to hear him place the candle and quietly remove Jon from his crib.

When she was sure he had Jon in his arms, Lyanna sat up and turned, her wolfish grin adorning her face.

 

Oberyn Martell stood in front of her, frozen on the spot.

He held onto Jon tightly, protectively.

Lyanna´s smile died on her face.

“What are you doing?” she whispered to him, careful not to speak to loudly.

“What does it look like I am doing?” he answered, too defensive for her taste.

“It looks like you are picking up MY son” she answered “when you have no reason to do so”.

Oberyn smiled for a moment. He seemed different under this light, weaker and younger.

“YOUR son?” he asked her, only half whispering “Have you forgotten that he is mine too?”

“He´s not. You know that”.

_He is mine._

_And mine alone._

_He doesn´t have a father._

_He doesn´t need one._

They hadn´t discussed it, but Lyanna had seen Arthur´s wounds and Oberyn´s bloody fists.

_He knew._

Oberyn looked down at the babe, a small, caring smile spreading through his face.

“So?”

_Don´t do that._

He left Jon back on his little crib and approached Lyanna, his face half illuminated by the candle, his warm eyes pleading with her. He walked silently until his knees touched the edge of the bed.

“So?” he repeated.

He looked at her and Lyanna felt herself burning under his gaze.

_You don´t get to do that._

_Not anymore._

_Not with him._

Lyanna stood up and went to Jon. He was sleeping, his pretty little face calmed as ever, his closed eyes drowned in a sea of peace that Lyanna desperately wanted, _needed_ to keep forever. She slowly caressed his pale cheek.

He was too young now, his face too new for anyone to be able to recognize distinctive features in him but Lyanna still saw in him her father´s lips, a small hint of Ned in the shape of his eyes and eyebrows, Benjen´s smile, Brandon´s laughter and Lyarra´s loving stillness.

No one more.

She didn´t see Rhaegar or Oberyn on him.

_Jon was a northerner._

_Jon was a Stark._

He turned and pressed his perfect little face to her hand. She smiled, a silent warmth filling her.

“He´s a Sand Lyanna” Oberyn said, his back to her face “he´s a Sand and he´s my son”.

“He´s a Stark, Oberyn” Lyanna answered, ice in her voice “he´s a Stark and he IS MY SON”.

Jon slightly shifted in his sleep, but he didn´t make a sound. He was a quiet, thoughtful little pup, who never drank too much and never cried too loudly, mindful of the ones around him even at this age. He was Ned through and through, and Lyanna couldn’t have been gladder.

_Wild wolves tend to  suffer more, probably because they are dumber than the quiet ones._

“He´s a Snow at best Lya” Oberyn whispered, right behind her “and I don´t care, but that doesn´t mean the world won´t”.

Lyanna smiled as she covered her son better, he again had kicked the blanket down.

“He´s a Stark” she said, still smiling at him “and the world can go fuck itself if it thinks that I give a rat´s ass about its opinions”.

Oberyn chuckled, and went to fix Jon´s blanket again. The babe seemed to hate the heat.

_A real northerner._

“Don´t” Lyanna stopped him.

Oberyn´s voice came dry, angry at her.

“Why?” he asked her harshly.

She felt his eyes on her, half angry half sorry and took a deep breath.

“Because you don´t have any right to”.

_I have a pack now, and you are not a wolf._

“I would” he whispered “but you left me”.

“I did. I left you and I did it because I wanted. I don´t want you near me, or him, why can´t you get that?”

He was angry now, she could perfectly feel it.

Fire raged through his eyes and he clutched his fists, breathing in loudly to calm himself. He stood there, halfway to her bed, calming himself down before looking at her again. His guilt hadn´t disappeared from his eyes when they fixated themselves on hers again.

“Still” he said, his voice clear and calm as spring morning “I should´ve been there”.

“I should´ve been there and I´ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you”.

 _Don´t you dare think I´ll fall for that again_.

“Why does that song sound so familiar?” Oberyn said nothing.

“When is it you are talking about, exactly?” she continued “When he forced me to marry him while I was alone and desperate or when he killed my family? Maybe you are talking about when he forced himself on me, when he raped me and didn´t have the dignity to look at my face or when he told me I was a whore, used goods because I wasn´t a maid? Perhaps you are talking about afterwards, when he realized what he´d done and I was left alone, bleeding and crying, half crying for my dead brother to come and take me with him?”

He looked at her for a moment.

“I am so sorry Lyanna and I´ll forever be sorry” he whispered.

“I don´t care” she answered, her hand back to her son.

He tried to reach out to touch him, but Lyanna´s pale hand graved his and forces it away from the sleeping child.

_You don´t get to touch him._

_No stranger gets to touch him._

“You won´t touch him Oberyn” she clarified for him, her voice cold on her own ears, freezing her lips as she softly said them “not after what you did”.

She can almost hear him silently pleading with her.

She did not release his hand.

“I said you won´t touch my son”.

“He could be mine too”.

She looked at him, her eyes frozen and her face filled with content.

“Mark the Could, Oberyn”

“And you could´ve stayed” he exploded, his voice still low.

She saw how Jon turned slightly, but his eyes kept shut, still lost in his own dreams, the only world where she wished she won´t try to reach him.

“You could´ve fucking slept the night with me by your side instead of running off” Oberyn continues, his eyes no longer sorry, his rage slowly pouring out of him “And I would’ve woken up with you and none of this would´ve happened. We could´ve been happy, you could´ve been safe. But you decided to run off and now we are here”.

His voice was back to his normal tone, loud and clear, and it rang like thunder on her ears.

Jon shifted uneasily.

_Don´t you think I know that?_

_But right now it doesn´t matter, because I would never give him up._

_Not even to you._

“And then what Oberyn? Are you so stupid as to think Robert would´ve allowed me to back off at the last minute of our marriage or do you think you and I would´ve lived happily ever after, that I would just give myself to you like that; after everything I had been through, you thought that I would just give up my pain and my anger and my frustration and need for justice and just fucking be happy with you?”

Oberyn walked away from her, turning and passing his bandaged hands through his hair in a sign of exasperation.

 _He´s angry,_ she thought, _he´s furious._

_His anger is different from Rhaegar´s, Oberyn´s rage isn´t loud and it doesn´t feel the whole room. It seems to turn on itself._

She could almost see it, twisting and burning, a ball of flames, screams, fury and indignation, but it didn´t grew. It didn´t shine too brightly or burned too hotly. It was in control, guarded inside him and the only outside sings of it were what Oberyn wanted to show.

 _This_ , she thought, _is a man I can reason with._

Not that it mattered. She didn´t have to reason with him. She was right, he was wrong, and he knew it perfectly well.

They could never be together.

Not because they didn´t like each other or because they drove each other mad, not even because of his known promiscuity or his daughters. It was because of Lyanna. She had been tied and bound and her opinion had been discarded before, but she had never felt the lack of control over her life as she had done in the last year.  She had carried a son she didn´t want, that she wasn´t ready for, and even if she loved him with all her heart and would gladly die for him, she had had it.

It would not happen again.

She wouldn’t be controlled or forced. Not even in the most subtle way. Not even by the people she loved.

“This isn´t about me abandoning you” she spat to him “because we both know perfectly well that would´ve happened sooner or later. Face it Oberyn, both of us, we are NOT made to love people, not in a committed way. We were born to be free, from everything that didn´t come natural to us”.

He turned to face her.

“Why won´t you let me love you?” He pleaded with her, his voice filled with pain and regret. It was as quiet as a snow storm, but it was enough, Jon woke and complained silently, in the only way he knew how.

Lyanna picked him up and started to rock him.

Oberyn waited for her answer, but she didn´t even part her lips.

One look at her face told him.

She brazed herself and covered Jon´s ears.

Oberyn turned and drove his fists against the wall, screaming. Lyanna watched him, waiting for a tear that didn´t come.

_I am sorry._

_But wolves’ aren´t allowed to love vipers, not even if they want to._

_And winter is coming._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank every one of you who has commented and left Kudos!! I hoped you liked this chapter, please comment and thank you for reading.


	26. Arthur

Arthur Dayne liked being at Dorne.

He liked the warm air and the spicy smell that the land just oozed, his body just relaxed and he felt calmed, clean. He never felt like that at King´s Landing.

But at that moment, as he rode with traitors, fugitives and the childhood friend that had almost murdered him, he wished he was back at Kings Landing, surrounded by the snakes and vermin he was used to.

At the front, Oberyn rode by his uncle side and had his angry face on. His eyes were locked on the road and his jaw was clenched. Arthur knew this even when he could only see Oberyn´s back. His anger showed in his shoulders as well, in his whole posture. As usual, the emotion that Oberyn was feeling at that particular moment seemed to spill out of him and into the air that surrounded him.

Lyanna Stark was just before him, her babe in her arms, silently watching her, her brother Ned was guarding them both. Arthur Dayne might´ve sworn to take no lovers, but he knew a lovers quarrel when he witnessed one.

He actually liked Lady Lyanna.

He liked her very much and for all the pain she seemed to be causing his childhood friend, he couldn´t help but side with her.

He often wondered if it was because of the guilt he was siding with her.

_Oberyn had been right._

_Oberyn is always right when it came to Rhaegar._

They travelled slowly back to the Water Gardens, making their way across the warm land and the sun´s scorching glare in a silent war. They were making their way not across sea, it was far too dangerous and they couldn’t count on the silent captain that had crossed Ned and Oberyn in less than three days. They would walk to the castle, even if it took them more or less half a month. They had already passed King´s Grave and were less than a day away from Skyreach.

If they turned east instead of west, Arthur would be able to visit his sister Ashara.

Of course, they wouldn’t turn.

He didn´t even ask.

They made camp and settled down for the night. Few words were exchanged. The northerners set their camp a few meters from theirs and all of them took time holding Jon while he Lyanna and Ned talked.

 _For large, bearded, scary looking men_ , Arthur thought, _they seem to be great with children_.

Supper was silent and tense.

Everything lately was silent and tense, even the watering of the horses. The group was divided into two factions. The ones that supported Oberyn (mainly Oberyn himself and his uncle Lewyn and just a couple of northerners who had simply stated a babe needs to have a Father when they were asked in a conversation Arthur overheard) and the bigger portion of northerners who supported Lyanna because they loved her.

At least that was what Arthur thought.

 

He stayed up that night, some other man was doing the watch, his eyes drifting through the stars as he drowned himself on his own memories of the last few weeks.

Lyanna was pleasant and he really enjoyed her company.

Although maybe pleasant wasn´t the proper word.

She was interesting.

Since day one, when they had left Kings Landing in the boat acquired by Varys, she had been anything but the kind of girl he was used to. She had refused to allow any of them to help her prepare her chamber and she had shared it with part of the crew and somehow he never heard them bothering her in any way. She had helped cooking and washing and even learned a bit of sailing.

When he asked about it on a sunny, warmer morning, that told them both their journey was coming to an end, she had simply smiled and continued to peel the potatoes.

“I don´t really know how the raising of a young Lady is done in the South Ser, but on the North, we are aware that servants are a privilege and not a right. Every young girl from the north, high or low born, learns how to take care of herself”.

She hadn’t said it proudly or like she was mocking the south, she had just said like it was fact.

She began to show the minute they reached shore. Her belly seem to just pop up and suddenly her sea sickness made much more sense.

He hadn´t said anything, but he knew. This was his own doing.

He had as much fault as Rhaegar.

Maybe even more.

During their stay at the tower, they had spoken often. He told her of the South, of Dorne and of his Lady Sister Ashara. She instead talked to him about the North, the Wall but not of Brandon.

As she spoke, Arthur understood part of it.

Of course the rebellion was far deeper than just her, it had to do with fear and Targaryen hate and the Mad King, but he understood why she was the last drop. She was lovely in her own way, a little feisty and when you talked to her you had a bigger chance of making her angry than making her smile, she had a loud voice and was impulsive, talking before thinking, her face was too sharp and way too pale, but still, she was a sight to behold, to wonder at.

She was also broken.

He understood Robert Baratheon for wanting her back, he understood why Rhaegar desired her and he understood the anger Oberyn felt.

He was ashamed to be one of the ones to blame for her scars.

A creature such as Lyanna Stark should never have chains, she should never be afraid or wounded.She should just be free.

When Eddard arrived at the tower, they stopped speaking to each other.

They hadn’t exchanged a single word since Oberyn smashed his face.

Arthur thought she´d finally gotten around to blaming him for what happened to her. He´d been waiting for her to hate him, to make the guilt he felt inside match up to the reality of their relationship.

She never did anything to show that she hated him.

 

He heard the soft steps on the ground just as the light of the embers began to die. A second set of legs went to meet the first ones just a few meters away from the camp.

In the dead silence of the warm night, the words flew to him like crows.

“You need to stop this right now”.

_That´s Lyanna._

“Stop what? Lady Targaryen, what is it that ails you?”

_And that´s Obe. Now there´s a silence._

_She´s probably glaring at him, her grey eyes piercing him.He´s matching her glance._

_He probably is the only one outside her family that knows how to._

“If there´s something that needs to be stopped here it´s you Lyanna. You and your petty, idiotic reasons to keep that boy from me”.

 _Loud sighs and a sarcastic chuckle._ Arthur knew those, he´d gotten them often when he was first getting to know Lyanna.

“What are you, some kind of child molester? Was that why you slept with me, because by body resembled a little boy´s? Why do you want him so badly?”

 _I know for a fact him doesn´t like them THAT young and I also know that he doesn’t have a problem with feminine curves_.

“You know why”.

“I don´t care about what you feel. The time I did was long ago and I paid a terrible price for it”.

Silence fell upon them and even though Arthur was pretending to sleep, his eyes closed and his body loose, he turned and slightly opened one eye.

They were almost touching, just an inch apart from each other. He could almost feel the heat irradiating from them.

_This can end in two ways. Either they fuck or they end up killing each other._

Oberyn reached to her and she placed her deep grey eyes on his. His hand, halfway to her face, stopped.

He muttered something and a sad smile appeared on her face.

She was sadder than he had ever seen her.

She turned and Oberyn was left there, alone.

*

They arrive to the Water Gardens almost a month later. The little fights Oberyn and Lyanna had weren´t recurrent and they usually were very able to hide them the morning after.

Arthur got really good at noticing them as well.

Mornings after Oberyn would be tense and silent. Angry with the world, he would throw small glances at Lyanna, pretending he didn´t follow he every move. His eyes would follow Jon everywhere and Arthur could almost see his soul breaking, his heart shattering.

Lyanna would have bigger, redder eyes than usual. Her son would remain on her arms and she would only talk with Ned using a heavy, almost indecipherable accent. Arthur sometimes even thought they were speaking another language.

Days would stretch and little by little, both of them returned to their usual behaviors, the hidden words they had quietly screamed at each other fading, remaining behind while they advanced, until either one of them summoned them from the distant dunes and it would all begin again.

 

They entered the main courtyard in a tired silence.

Everyone got off the horses and removed for the last time the cloaks from their faces. They had faced several small sand storms on their way there and when they arrived to the village, hiding the northerners from spies became Prince Lewyn´s main concern.

_Traitors and fugitives hide._

_And that´s what we are now._

 

_I don´t know why I am even surprised._

The patio was almost empty, just a skinny servant standing in the middle of it. After Ned sent his men on their way to rest, he asked to see Prince Oberyn.

“He´s dinning” the servant answered, looking nervously both at Prince Lewyn and Oberyn.

“I would like to see him right away if you don´t mind” Ned answered nicely “we have a few things to discuss”.

The servant walked away, with Ned and Lyanna on toe.

Oberyn threw Arthur a small glance.

“We should follow them”.

And so they did.

 

Arthur knew something was wrong the moment they entered the spacious, beautiful room. The large table that faced the open arches and the small pools were children played and laughed wasn´t only occupied by Doran and his wife Mellario. There was a young, pretty girl with large eyes, pale skin and brown curls sitting and dinning with them.

Lyanna was staring at her while Ned and Doran talked.

Mellario´s eyes went from one to another and the young girl smiled kindly at Lyanna.

_She looks just like her._

_Oh gods._

Oberyn stopped his tracks at the door and his uncle almost fell to the ground trying to avoid him and enter the room through the small door at the same time. Lyanna turned to look at Oberyn.

“Ned” she said in a soft voice, slowly turning red “please hold Jon for a moment”.

Ned took the babe from her arms and everyone´s face was pale, their eyes followed Lyanna and watched as she stood in front of Oberyn.

The kick to his knee made him fall to the ground faster than Arthur thought possible.

“TELL ME IT´S NOT TRUE” she screamed while she yanked him up and twisted his arm in a clearly painful way “TELL ME YOU WEREN´T FUCKING GIRLS THAT LOOKED LIKE ME WHILE I WAS BEING RAPED”.

“TELL ME AGAIN AND AGAIN THAT YOU WISHED YOU COULD´VE STOPPED HIM, THAT YOU ARE SO SORRY FOR NOT BEING THERE BECAUSE YOU WERE FUCKING SOME GIRL THAT LOOKS LIKE ME”.

She pushed Oberyn against the table and took a knife.

Nobody moved.

Her son wasn´t even crying.

“Tell me one last time that you love HIM” she said, placing the knife on his neck “I dare you to do it. Because if you do, I´ll kill you, and I promise you lover, I won´t fail”.

She released him, digging the knife right into the table, next to his neck and turned to Ned.

“Hand me my son”.

A small tear ran down her cheek.

*

“Gods” Oberyn said when he sat next to him “are you going to lecture me as well?”

“Mellario was here just a few moments ago, Doran came before her and even Ned fucking Stark came to give me a piece of his mind”.

Arthur sighed.

 _I know_.

“I´m not here to lecture you Obe”.

He smelled worse than a distillery.

“So we´re friends again?”

“You´re drunk. You have no friends now”.

“Thanks, that´s real helpful”.

Sitting across from him, Arthur made to grab the wine and pour himself a glass. Oberyn took it and started to drink from there.

“There´s no need to be an prick”.

Oberyn took a long gulp.

“Haven´t you heard? That´s the only thing I am”.

“No, you are also an egotistical idiot who´s drank too much and the sun hasn’t even peaked yet. I can swear you smell worse than Robert Baratheon at Harenhall”.

Oberyn´s face grew slowly colder. “

Don´t talk about him”.

“Fine” Arthur said “let´s talk about her”.

“I should just punch you in the face again”.

“You couldn’t do it even if you tried. You are as drunk as they get”.

“I´m not THAT drunk”.

He was smiling.

_Good._

_Now allow me to wipe that smile off your face._

“Do you lover her?”

Oberyn threw him a deadly glare.

 

“Who?”

_Don´t play stupid with me. I know you since before you could even grow that stupid beard._

“You mother” he answered “Lyanna you alcoholic moron”.

Oberyn smiled.

“Does it even matter if I love her? She blames me for every bad thing that ever happened to her and the fact is she has a point”.

_Here we go._

“No she doesn´t”. Oberyn lifted an eyebrow, confused.

“She doesn´t blame you” Arthur clarified “although you might be guilty she doesn´t blame you. I know it because she didn’t blame me after her rape and I WAS right outside. She didn´t scream and kicked me, if she doesn´t blame me, there´s no way she blames you Obe”.

Oberyn grew silent for a moment.

“She´s hurting. You just need to give her time and help her heal. You need to help mend her broken pieces”.

“Still” he whispered “neither of them deserve me, they don´t need me. The only thing I know to do is to hurt the ones I love”.

Arthur stood up.

He had already said what he wanted. He placed a hand on Oberyn´s shoulder.

“I might not know many things Obe, unlike you, but I do know a thing. You´re not a bad man, no matter what everyone else says”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOO this is a long one and it´s been a while since I posted anything, but here it is. Sorry if it seems like nothing happened, I just felt like writing a chapter like this and after I finished the last one I realized I didn´t like the way the rest of the planned story fitted with it so I had to change everything and it took a while. Plus school has just been TOO freaking much and there´s still eight months to go.  
> Anyway, thank you very much for reading, I hope you liked it and please comment.


	27. Oberyn VIII

He woke to the sound of water pouring. As he lazily opened one eye, the other still closed against the soft silky pillow, the girl placed a goblet on the table next to him, sadly filled with water and not with wine.

She was completely naked and Oberyn silently appreciated the paled smoothness of her skin. Still, now it seemed like the small scars, the undeletable marks of adventures were missing.

He knew perfectly well where he had gotten used to them.

“She´s pretty” the girl said with her soft morning after voice.

“Who?” Oberyn asked while rubbing both his eyes with the back of his hand.But of course, he knew perfectly well who she was talking about.

“The girl you are trying to replace with me”.

 _So you noticed_.

“She was very pretty” the girl continued her voice cool, not a hint if she was actually angry or hurt over Lyanna “a little skinny though, but I think that had to do more with her babe. She looked fierce, a bit scary even, for a moment I thought she was going to cut your head off. She seemed more like a warrior than a mother”.

_She seems both to me._

 “Isn´t that the same?”

“I suppose it is after all” the girl stood up and started to dress herself “I am not a fool. If she´s here then it´s my time to go. I´ll leave as soon as I can”.

“Don´t”.

She smiled sadly and went to fix one of Oberyn´s over grow strands of hair.

“My Prince, the only reason you even looked at me in the first place was because I looked a bit like her. The only reason I looked at you was because the other men at the ship were almost scary. Our lovely time has come to an end. I hope you and your Lady end up together”.

“Farewell...” he really did mean to say her name.

She left the room and Oberyn faced the cream colored ceiling.

_I don´t even remember her name._

So, with a bitter sweet taste on his mouth, he got up and went about through the castle.

Wherever he looked, a northerner stood. They´d seemed to have multiplied themselves in just a few days.

They were large, pale and bearded men that stood strangely still, too straight for Oberyn´s taste and still wore leather, no matter how hot the day was.

They seemed to be at every corner and room he looked.

_Were we over run by northerners?_

_Am I the only one who noticed?_

He graved a servant buy the arm.

“Can I be of help, prince Oberyn?”

“Can you see” he said softly, as if the men could hear him from afar “the three large men that are standing over there, by the door?”

“Yes” answered the servant, slightly worried.

“Are they extremely pale and do they have thick beards?”

“Yes my lord, they are from the North. They are Lord Stark´s men”.

Oberyn watched them, trying to remember if he had seen them at the tower.

“My prince?” the servant´s voice interrupted his thoughts “your daughter, Obara, asked me to tell you that she was waiting for you at the training yard”.

“Did she use those exact words?”

“No m´lord. She said to every one she could that if they saw her lazy and weakling father we had to tell him that he was useless and that she was waiting to destroy him on the yard”.

_Lovely._

“Thanks” Oberyn whispered before heading off to the yard. He had gone to the tower without telling Obara and that probably hadn´t made her very happy.

It turned out though, that Obara was already fighting someone on the training yard.

And she was not alone.

 _It´s official,_ Oberyn thought, _I´ve gone mad._

“HARDER” Ned Stark screamed, half laughing as Obara and Nym attacked him, both from different angles.

He blocked Nym´s throwing knifes with a part of Obara´s spear and caused them to get tangled and fall.

Obara stood up easily, but Nym had some problems and Ned, ever honorable, went to check on her, a worried look on his face. Obara took her spear from the ground and threw it to his feet.

He stumbled and fell over.

_Good girl._

“CHANGE”.

Ned Stark used no weapon when fighting his eldest snakes, probably to even out the fight, but his sister, Lyanna used a thin and smooth bamboo branch to fight Obara.

Nymeria had stood up silently and watched the fight from a safe distance. She was next to Ned, and sometimes she would make small comments that made him smile.

The blows came and went almost too fast for his eyes, but he could clearly see the determination on Obara´s sweaty face. Lyanna on the other hand, had her ever calmed and relaxed face.

Oberyn smiled.

_She´s tasting freedom again._

And as expected, in the end Lyanna won. She made a strange turn, grabbed Obara´s spear, made her fall onto the ground and delicately touched her neck with the spear´s point.

“Game”.

“MY TURN” Nymeria screamed.

“REMATCH” Obara bawled at the same time.

“DADDY” Tyene pleaded.

Oberyn turned to his daughter, the only pale snake he had.

“Yes, my little snake?” he asked her kindly.

If Obara and Nymeria were warriors, Tyene and her little sister Sarella were ladies. They were always quiet, with big infantile eyes and easy hidden smiles they only gave you when you did what they asked. Obara and Nymeria might’ve gotten you to do what they wanted by force and fear, but Tyene and Sarella, his younger snakes, were worse. They manipulated you into doing what they wanted. In the end, you always thought it had been your idea. And they were only five and two.

“Obara and Nym are keeping Lyanna and Lord Eddard all to themselves” she protested, rubbing her eyes. She was tired, she normally slept all morning, but since there were new guests, who didn´t know about her tricks, she had to be up.

Oberyn picked her up and went to sit where Sarella and Ned rested. He, as always, had Jon and was talking softly to him and Sarella.

“And even beyond the wall Brandon the builder made, there´s wildlings, who call themselves the free folk and they descend from the first men, like us, and there´s mosses and dire wolves, like the one in our sigil and woods that are older than time. There´s a lot Eire woods, pale with their red bleeding faces and some people even say that there are still Children of the Forest living there. And there´s a place that´s even at the north of the lands beyond the wall. It´s the lands of eternal winter”.

Sarella looked up towards Oberyn, her eyes lost on the snow filled woods Ned calmly described.

“I want to go north too, Daddy” she said while Oberyn place Tyene next to her “I want to see Winterfell and it´s hot springs and the snow”.

She then closed her eyes and laid down, preparing herself to sleep.

“Someday darling” Oberyn smiled “when your sister isn´t getting her ass handed to her by a northerner”.

Obara was on the ground again. Ned started to rock Jon, who´d clearly fallen asleep. Oberyn resisted the impulse to take him from Ned, to fetch him from his arms and rock him himself to sleep. He silently craved to have his warmth in his arms again.

Tyene blinked and laid herself down next to Sarella. The sound of their even breaths mixed with Obara´s frustration screams and Nym´s joyful monosyllables, and beneath all that, Jon´s peaceful little inspirations hid.

The mix of the sounds created possibly the most harmonious melody Oberyn had ever heard.

Oberyn watched Obara and Lyanna silently.

_She´s holding back. She would destroy Obara if she wanted._

Ned continued to rock Jon. He had opened his mouth to say something when Aero approached them. Lyanna stopped fighting as soon as Aero cleared his throat. She made Obara trip and fall yet again, sending Nymeria to the ground with laughter.

“Prince Doran requires your presence” he said looking at her “All of you”

*

Oberyn watched as the doors closed behind Ned Stark and wondered if it pained him to smile. He looked like he was walking to his own funeral.

All of them sat at Doran´s solar, which was completely dark except for the few candles at the table.

“Could we get more light in here, please?” Oberyn asked.

Everybody and their mothers turned to glare at him.

“Could we at least like open a window or something?”

“OBERYN”.

“It´s the middle of the day Doran and we are allowed to enjoy sunlight, aren´t we? Besides, there are some of us that look like they´ve never really seen the sun”.

Now it was only Ned who glared at him, then it was Doran. Oberyn just chuckled and watched as his tired looking brother stood up and opened the curtains.

 _Let there be light_.

“I´ve gathered you all here to inform you of something you might find interesting” Doran said after sitting down.

 _Might, yeah_.

Oberyn chuckled. It was Doran´s turn to lead the angry glares.

“King´s Landing has been burned down”

Oberyn smiled, half amused, half surprised.

 _Let there be chaos_.

Everybody started to talk at the same time, Holland and Ned discussed who could´ve planned it and Arthur and Ser Lewyn talked about the possibilities that either Rhaegar or his father had survived, Doran tried to answer everybody´s questions at the same time, Mellario talked with Aero while Ser Oswell tried to talk to whoever would listen.

Lyanna sat next to him, her face completely relaxed, like this was no news to her. He watched her wait until everyone was quiet.

_Should I do it? What the hell, I can take another beating._

“You can´t do that, you know?”

She turned to face him slightly.

“Do what?”

“Forbid me to even look at Jon and play with my daughters like they are yours”.

Lyanna smiled and just a tiny spark of joy reached her eyes.

“Do you really want to do this right now?” she asked “In the middle of a council?”

_If it stops you from beating me to death, yes._

“I don´t want to do it period, but I have to” he answered “I told you when we were traveling and I´ll tell you again, you won´t keep him from me if you truly love him, just as I won´t keep you from your freedom”.

This time she didn´t answer. It´s a step forward, she didn´t call me coward, traitor or liar and her hands haven´t even touched my body. Outside of their little bubble, the battle raged on. Doran against his guests.

Wonder who would win?

“So what will we do?” someone finally asked in the middle of the mess.

_Interesting question._

_Knowing Doran, nothing._

“Isn´t it obvious” Lyanna said, mater of factly “we´ll choose”.

All eyes turned to her and looked at her like she was mad.

“What?” asked Ser Oswell, slightly scared.

 _What Indeed_.

“We´ll choose the next King”.


	28. Lyanna X

“I´m leaving”.

There was his god’s awful confession, sounding way too much like a burden in her hears for her to admit to her lovely brother. Ned´s voice was kind and soft. It literally sounded just like her Father. Lyanna held her breath for a moment.

All in all, she didn´t want him to leave. She also didn´t want him to sound like their Father. She didn´t want anything but to curl in bed with Jon and just sleep next to him, forgetting about the world around them and just enjoy his little lovely breaths.

She was quite the over protecting mother.

_Brandon would fall of laughing if he knew._

But she didn´t want him to stay either and her ambivalence didn’t matter anymore. Nothing except what they had decided mattered. There was only one path to follow, and the Stark wolves were eager to begin their journey. Allowing Neddie to leave was necessary. She placed her hand on Ned´s bearded cheek. He was holding onto Jon like he was the most precious creature in the world.

_Like he should._

“Fine Neddie” she answered him kindly “return to your wife”.

*

_I am bad._

She came to that conclusion before the entered the room.

_No, I am just plain mean._

It turned out that the alcohol from the north was different from the one in Dorne, but only an idiot would´ve thought they were going to be the same. Back in Winterfell, most alcoholic beverages were transparent and without smell. They did their job fast and efficiently. They got you drunk. She had learned that from Brandon. In Dorne, on the other hand, the beverages were filled with different smells and spices, she could detect fruits and sweets in the colorful liquids. To her, they seemed fake.

Lyanna had to drink almost three entire jars to feel a slight buzz, and the truth she hide inside her began to disentangle.

_I am better than everyone else._

She owned up to it. She accepted it and felt a weight lift off her shoulders. Even if she knew it to be a lie.

She just thought she was better than everyone, because she was broken, weak and scared. She was anything but a wolf, anything but a northerner. She wasn´t fit to the mother of the lovely creature the old gods had given her.

Lyanna had a sudden impulse to leave, to allow Jon to grow without her, to live and grow as a boy without any of the burdens that came with her. Ned couldn´t find her if she didn´t want him to. She could run away, reach the Wall and beyond. Become free and just live. Return to what she was meant to do all her live. Give her son a real chance in this world to become his own, to not carry anything from a past that didn´t belong to him. She wanted him to be judged by his actions, not by a past that he didn´t even witness.

She got up, ready to steal a horse and ran away from the reality that had stained her.

He clashed into her, and they were so close that she could not only feel his breath over her bare skin, but the natural warmth that seem to emanate from him.

He was like her, half drowned in alcohol.

The impulse left her as soon as she processed who was standing near her.

_I am not going to give him up to you._

_Not by a long shot._

“What are you doing?”

“None of your business”.

Harshness and bitterness were in the air, being thrown from Oberyn to Lyanna and back, like a children´s ball. And that’s what they were, two stupid, stubborn children that wouldn´t admit they were only half right and that would throw away the world trying to prove their own point.

“I am fucking tired of it” he spat to her.

“Tired of what?” she asked back, throwing her words like blows to him.

“I´m tired of it, you know? I´m tired of seeing you around, pretending to know me and believing that you are better than me. Cause you aren´t, love. You are just as bad and as wrecked and as poison for him as me. If I am a bad influence, if I am a danger to the babe that I helped to create, then so are you. Because you are just as reckless, impulsive, stupid, stubborn and idiotic as me. You are me, just like I am you and you will never have the right to take him from me. I´ll chase you, to the end of the world if I have to, only to watch him growing with the father he´s supposed to have”.

His words hanged between them, a provocation, a warning, a threat.

Maybe it was the fact that they both were drunk, maybe it was that she was stupid and vulnerable and that she knew not that deep, he was telling the truth. Maybe it was all of that together. But the explanation Lyanna would later give to herself was simpler.

Maybe she was just in love with Oberyn Martell.

In a second they were kissing, touching and feeling each other. He was pushing her against her, biting her lips, crashing his mouth on hers until she opened her lips.

_This is such a terrible idea._

But it didn´t matter. She opened her mouth to him and allowed his tongue to enter, to play and tease and fight her own. He fought her for control, pushed deeper and deeper, but she didn´t allow him to win even the smallest bit of domain. She fought back and heard him moan in response. He pushed her against him, and Lyanna already felt him hard against her.

_I am in control._

_I think._

She took a hold of his hair with both her hands and pulled him down towards her. Pushed HIM against her.

_I do these things to you, not the other way around._

He responded quickly. He grabbed the back of her dress and ripped it off. She felt his warm touch on her back, his hand circling her waist and pulling her up to him.

_I am such a liar._

Oberyn pulled her against the table her she had just been drinking alone and made her sat on it. Some of the jars fell to the floor and broke. He didn´t want to break their kiss. She felt it on him, so instead to break apart and allow the time for both of them to get naked, he carefully slipped a hand up her thigh, soft and sensual like a snake, his hand climbed up her leg, his lips grinning at her slight jumps and startles caused by him. He moved from her lips to her earlobe, whispering in a dark voice that Lyanna didn´t know.

“So no one has touched you there yet, love?”

She only moaned as his fingers found their way through the silks and fabrics of her light blue Dornish dress.

“So I´m your first” he laughed darkly “again”.

“Fuck you” she moaned back to him.

“I think it´s the other way around love”.

He began pumping her slowly, making her work for every moan she got to make and smirking every time.

In and out, in and out, he was maddening slow, always touching just an inch above where she needed him to. He was enjoying making her suffer, not giving her exactly what she needed.

Until she had enough of it. She pushed him to a chair and straddled him. He smirked at her.

Lyanna placed her hands at each side of his face and looked deeply into his eyes. His expression changed and she started to move slowly on top of him. He placed his hands at her hips and pressed at her tightly, helping her to move on top of him. Their moans mixed in the warm air between them. She leaned to him and her hair made a curtain, a wall between them and the world. His eyes were on hers, he released her hips and pressed her harder against him. She kissed him slowly, deeply, had her way in him like he was having his way in her, slow, maddening pumps, creating waves of pleasure that crashed against her. He read her body, reacted in the perfect way, just like she did to him.

It seemed to last for hours, this perfect moment of theirs where they were only one. It could´ve lasted years, decades, centuries and it wouldn´t have mattered. They were one now, mixed into two bodies, separated but finally together. It was slow, sensual, the way it was supposed to be between them. They kept fighting for dominance, a peaceful game that wouldn’t end in all of eternity. Because they were equals, they were exactly the same the person and at the same time, they were completely opposites.

Her final moan was as loud as it could be, it reverberated through the whole room and shook him to the bone.

His was muffled against her heart.

They looked at each other for a moment.

_Now what?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m back (again) hope you enjoyed it and please comment!!! thank youuuuu


	29. Oberyn IX

_At least she´s attracted to me._

_She can´t possibly deny that._

Living with Lyanna Stark wasn´t exactly what Oberyn Martell had expected when he had envisioned having her at Dorne. It was in fact, very different from what he had envisioned his married life to be. Truth be told, he wasn´t married to her and therefore this wasn’t technically married life, but still it was fucking bizarre seeing her around, walking and talking, sometimes even dressed in freaking Dornish silks.

It made Oberyn question his sanity, along with his safety and wellbeing.

He watched Lyanna interact with the Dornish intently.

Everybody seemed to like her well enough. They treated her like any other woman, only a couple of guards were actually interested in her because of her fighting and the others servants seemed to like her because she was always willing to chat with them, Jon in her arms.

His girls loved her though, they adored her more religiously than any devote septa Oberyn had met, following her and Jon around and always fighting to get her attention and to please her.

“They never did that with me” he commented to Aero one day when they were watching them play on the pools.

“That´s because they know you´ll love them anyway. With Lady Wolf, they are scared, because they might not be good enough for her”.

Somehow it was hard to believe Lyanna would dislike any of his daughters, even if they were _his_. She would fight and run around with Obara and Nym, then dance and play with Tyene and once Oberyn even heard her singing to Sarella.

_This is fucking bizarre._

And yet, Oberyn didn´t know what else he had expected.

“She is a mother, Oberyn” Aero had said when he voiced his doubts to him “good mothers love all children, because every child is the child they grew on their womb”.

“When did you become such an expert on mothers?”

“When I helped select the ones that were going to look after your daughters while you were off, making us more little snakes to take care of”.

_Rude._

“What was that for?”

Aero smiled.

“Cause, Prince Oberyn, you´re an idiot and I care for you” he answered.

“I want to be the father of her son” Oberyn suddenly confessed to the guard.

He just lifted and eye brow, waiting for him to elaborate.

“I just” Oberyn said “kind of feel the need to. Is that normal?”

Aero chuckled.

“When the Red Viper and the She Wolf are involved, nothing is normal, my prince”.

They stayed silent for a moment.

“But yes” Aero finally said, focusing on the warm stones beneath them “when you find someone you love, you just feel the need to, no matter what, to be with them”.

After what she had told him the night Ned left, he´d been watching her more intently. Noticing different things about this woman trapped in a girl’s body. He noticed how she seemed just a little bit sadder when she smiled after Ned left, how she would often close her eyes when Jon was in her arms and finally, how her laughter didn´t echo as louder as it used to after Arthur left to go take care of his sister.

Oberyn tried not to think about his sister. His lovely, kind and wise sister who had been a more caring and attentive mother than the woman that had pushed him of her body. Every corner and stone reminded him of Elia, the air seemed to resonate with the laughs he used to share. Now more than ever he missed her. He began to understand Lyanna and he began to pity her.

Slowly, Oberyn watched how Lyanna Stark started to dim, her young happiness fading away, being replaced by either a peaceful, well-hidden to everyone but him and his new understanding of her, melancholy or a driving, dark energy that seemed to fill her every time she talked about politics.

She would light up when discussing with Doran, her voice clear and strong, resonating like commands from a lost goddess.

When the council meetings came, he´d just sit and watch, silently marveling at the creature in front of him.

God´s he was so lost.

It was some sort of peaceful interval before the war restarted for him.

He would watch Lyanna, play with his daughters, relax and smile. It was as close as he got to happiness.

The council meetings were bore though and he would usually run out of them as soon as Doran declared the meeting over.

So when his lovely brother asked him to stay after the meeting he almost choked on his own wine and he almost spited it out when Doran asked Lyanna to stay as well.

_Gods no, please spare me this pain._

Doran waited until the last of his council men were gone before opening his mouth again.

“Now, Lady Lyanna, I trust your brother had the honesty of approaching you with this subject before his departure and if he did not, please don´t take this the wrong way, but we need to talk about family matters”.

_Don´t do it Doran._

Strangely, at the same time, he wanted Doran to do it. He wanted Doran to force her to make a decision.

Oberyn tensed up on his seat.

He threw one glance at Lyanna and noticed how nervous she had become.

_Not a little girl anymore, nor a grown woman. A tragic mix of both._

“I trust, prince Doran” she said in her political voice “that what Neddie implied is as far from your idea as Winterfell is from here, because I assure you, I have no trouble returning there to prepare the North for the rest of the war”.

_She didn´t just say that, right?_

Doran chuckled and poured himself more wine.

_She did._

“Lady Lyanna” he continued “I you think I am going to force you into some kind of marriage or alliance that I know you don´t want, then you don´t know me very well. Nonetheless I do firmly believe that you should get married as soon as possible. Given that you find a man worthy of you”.

_You disgusting little traitor._

_Fucker._

_You aren´t going to force her into a marriage._

_You are going to force me._

_Again._

 

“I doubt I´ll ever find any”.

She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. Oberyn tried to give her his most real I was not involved in this.

She didn´t seem to believe him though.

“I assume you want me to marry your brother”.

“You are claiming your son as his, it would be natural that you married him”.

Lyanna smiled.

“Let me be very clear on this Prince Doran. I thank you fully for the kindness and the aid you have provided for me and mine. I consider you a great man and politician and hope the alliance between The North and Dorne only flourishes from now on, but do not think for a second that you can either choose or even suggest a candidate for the man that I choose to be my husband”.

She then turned and walked away, proud and powerful as the wolf she was.

Oberyn turned to Doran.

“Well that went well”.

Doran sighed loudly.

“Women are literally going to be the death of me”.

“To me it seems like a big improvement, I always thought you were going to die out of boredom brother. I believed your death would come a day when your body registered how boring your life had been and just decided to quit”.

Doran rubbed his head like his did when he was worried.

“Do you even care about this?” he asked him softly “Do you even care about the little one?”

_Fucking Aero._

_I´m not telling you shit after this._

“That´s not really the issue now, Doran”.

His brother sighed loudly and Oberyn took it as the indication it was time to leave.

He walked out of Doran´s solar.

He stopped for a moment, wondering what he should do.

The sea pools and the cliff came to his mind instantly.

He walked there lost in memories.

It was the place Elia took him to when he was angry, sad or both. She consoled him there when he broke his arm trying to learn to use the spear or when he got frustrated because he couldn´t read as well as the other kids, when their little brothers died she held him tight and both of them practically lived there for days when their Father died. She jumped with him to the ocean when her marriage was announced. They were hoping that the deep clear sea would take them both away from Dorne. Away from everything.

He stood at the edge of the cliff, feeling how the peaceful sea caressed the rocks like a gentle lover and wondered what he wanted exactly, the cold air mixed with the salt water and suddenly, like silent teardrops, small soft raindrops began to fall.

He felt so completely alone.

Suddenly, she was there, standing next to him.

She reeked of salt and her clothes were wet, her hair fell damp on her back and her eyes were closed.

She looked like a dark mermaid, emerged from the depths of the ocean beneath them.

“I used to do the same you know” Oberyn whispered, more to himself than her “every time I got overwhelmed, Elia would take me here, she would either swim with me until I felt too tired to worry or she would let me scream and jump, pretend I could ran away from my problems”.

She stayed silent and Oberyn  uderstood why Doran had brought up the babe. He suddenly grew angry with her, as if all the anger he had let loose on that spot came rushing back towards him and all the logically repressed fury he felt came pouring out of him.

“Look, I know and understand your need to be free, and I am sorry for you, because you lost your entire world and suffered in ways I can never imagine and you never want to feel powerless or trapped again, I get it, but Doran and your brother are right. This is no longer about you and it will never be about you anymore. This about the son you had and your only objective in life from the moment he started to live inside you was to protect him. You need to do everything that you can to ensure that he will live enough to see his own grandchildren, because you are all he´s got and you won´t allow anyone else near him. That´s fine by me, but you need to know damned well that if don´t marry anyone or if you don´t have another man to claim him as his other than Rhaegar, he will be taken from you, not matter the outcome of this war and everything that happens to him from that moment will be on your hands and on your hands alone".

He looked at her.

"So know that now it´s not the time to play rebel" he said "now more than ever is the time to act like fucking woman Lyanna. Not for me, not for you, but for him. Let´s make that point clear".

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOO this was a long one. I´m happy to be back and probably will be posting a new chapter tomorrow and another one on sunday!! I hope you liked it, please comment and as always, thank you for reading!!!


	30. Cersei II

Her father walked around the room, resembling a caged lion way too much for Cersei´s liking. She had learned at a young age that trapped beasts were the most likely to rip off your arm when you were trying to feed them. And her father was a beast, there was no doubt about that.

Tyrion looked at her, a mix of worry and something else Cersei couldn´t quite grasp on his eyes.

She remembered, when just a few days ago, Tyrion did nothing but spend time with the old Maester, learning nonsense about the Red Keep.

The dress maker continued to work on the hem of her dress, a lovely emerald color with carmine drawings on its corset. Cersei had caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror before, and as in most of her new dresses, she looked ravishing. She knew she ought to be happy about that.

_How could everything go so badly?_

She had tasted power, real power because of Rhaegar Targaryen. She had commanded and ruled the entire court better than anyone before her. Her status higher than any other woman. When she´d looked on the mirror, she had seen not Cersei Lannister the girl, but Cersei Lannister the woman.

The Queen.

In the beginning, she didn´t know why the other women had accepted her, she knew why she held the title, it was because Rhaegar was spending time with her, but she didn´t know why they had accepted her, why they´d just roll over and stopped fighting her for him. She had understood later.

_They weren´t lions._

Defeat was part of their nature.

Bowing to others was the position they preferred.

She did not care as well. As soon as the invisible crown had settled over her head, she had acted like everyone could see it. They had acted like that as well. Noble Lords and Ladies, Servants, Septons and even the White Guard treated her like her hair was silver and not golden.

Even the King.

She had been sleeping the first time she was summoned.

A guard had knocked on the door and told her that his highness had asked her to meet him.

She foolishly had thought it was Rhaegar who demanded to see her. She had asked for a few moments, brushed her golden hair, pinched her cheeks and tied a knot on her waist, to accentuate her breasts.

She had felt the eyes of the man on her.

_This is the night I officially become queen._

Aerys had been sitting on the throne. His fingers were tracing the edge of one of the sharpest swords. Blood was sliding through his hands and staining his black robe.

“Now it has both of the colors of my house” he explained to her when she arrived.

She heard how the guard left the room.

_This is the night I die._

He didn´t rise to touch her. He remained sitting, his voice soft and his eyes shy when they were directed to her.

He talked nonsense, kind words with complements that talked about fire and dragons.

But Cersei understood none the less. He talked to Johanna Lannister.

“You should wear more red” he whispered to her “if you did, everyone else would see how I see you. Like a bulging fire, like power and danger personified. That way everybody would know they are in love with you as well”.

Cersei smiled to him. His violet eyes lighted up. They almost seemed blue in the silver light of the moon.

“Come closer Johanna” he whispered “come closer and allow me to stand for a few seconds in your presence”.

She didn´t move.

“I promise I won´t try to kiss you again” he pleaded “I know you love him, I understand it, but please let me just imagine how it would be like with you near me. I swear on the old gods and the new I will never ask anything of you again”.

She didn´t know why she did what she did. Cersei moved until she was right in front of him.

His eyes were lost, she could see that very well. He was drowning in his own made up reality and she for the first time pitied him. She felt bad for the poor, lost and small man that everyone wanted dead.

As she looked at him, she recognized in his gaze something she had known all too well.

He wasn´t mad only because he was a Targaryen. He was also mad because he loved, adored and bowed to who he thought she was.

She had seen the same gaze only on one man.

It was the way Jaime looked at her.

She leaned in and chastely kissed his dried lips. Then she had turned and left.

That night, she understood.

She didn´t want a silver prince, with amethysts eyes, a soft voice and a romantic melancholy to him. She wanted gold hair and emerald eyes and the strength and impulsiveness that came with him. She wanted Jaime, she wanted her perfect half. The one that had come into this world with her. She thought that that was what had done it. Maybe Rhaegar just wanted a partner that was just as sad as him, to recognize loneliness in another one. Perhaps he didn´t want to feel alone anymore, and he wanted someone who was equally guilty of their loved ones demise, someone who understood him. Or maybe he had finally succumbed to his needs as a man.

But one evening, as they silently strolled, he had asked her.

“Why are you so sad my lady? You appear a winter flower, a frozen beauty, quiet and lonely, waiting to die”.

She had smiled at him.

“I am my lord. I am waiting to see my loved one again”.

She hadn´t bothered to correct the one for ones.

“I know how much the memory of the loved ones can burden the soul” Rhaegar had answered.

_He´s not a burden, you are._

Cersei stopped before the red carnations. She had often fancied the velvet roses, but the carnations were her favorites. Jaime gave them to her every time he wanted to apologize to her. She thought of the white ones with red edges, the ones that used to be pure but now were stained with blood.

_But I´m not just stained now, I am covered, dripping in blood._

_His blood._

Even a red carnation wasn´t enough to represent her.

“I´ve never been a particularly silent person” Cersei said “but now, I just think nobody would really understand if I told them anything”.

Rhaegar stood behind her.

“Meet me” he whispered “and I´ll try to understand”.

*

The old dress maker, a woman marked with scars and ugly, with a piercing gaze and pinching needles turned to Tywin.

“The dresses are done m´Lord. As you can see, they hide the signs very well. When she passes the third moon, you ought to summon me again, to allow me to prepare the new shape of her dresses”.

Tywin nodded, turned around to get the gold and placed a tinkling bad on her stained hand.

“Don´t worry” he said “it won´t go that far”.

He accompanied her out and locked the door when he returned.

“I cannot believe you were so stupid that you laid with him” he spat at her.

_If you only knew who I´ve shared bed with, how many times and in what places._

_You´d die and I would be happy._

“And I cannot believe how thick you´ve become” she answered him.

Tywin Lannister would´ve slapped her right there if she hadn´t been so far. She saw it in his eyes.

“I´m keeping it, assuring it will grow to breathe on its own. And finally you have a strong enough reason to decide and stop debating with yourself which boy you fancy more”.

Tywin placed both hands on the desk and stared at her.

“Speak before I have you delivered to the silent sisters”.

“My child will never be king with the Targaryen. There is absolutely no way on earth that Rhaegar will marry me if he wins. He´ll try to make political alliances, either with the North, the Storm lands or even Dorne again. Viserys Targaryen or even the unborn one will come before my child if he doesn´t marry again and all we´ll have is a Targaryen bastard” she explained to him “Robert Baratheon, on the other hand, needs to take Kings Landing to assure his victory. Only you can deliver it to him. He´ll owe you, I´ll marry him and say the child is his and if he realizes that it´s not his and doesn´t want him, you´ll make him your heir. Baratheon won´t risk killing another Targaryen, not if we announce to the world who he is and gather their supporters again”.

Tywin stared at her and she could almost see him thinking behind his eyes.

Calculating the odds, weighting the possible outcomes. Seeing what is in his sole benefit.

“What if the child has silver hair or purple eyes?” asked Tyrion.

“Silver is just blonde, purple is just blue” she answered “did you ever lay eyes on Rhaenys. She was Dorne through and through. He´ll be Lannister”.

“He?” asked Tywin “how do you know it´s a he?”

“I just do” she answered.

_You´ll be born again Jaime._

_I will see you in the son of the Prince._

_You´ll be a King to be remembered throughout the ages._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOO here as promised. I hope you like it, please comment and thank you for reading!!!


	31. Oberyn X

He spent most of his last day with the girls.

He spared with Obara and Nym, danced for hours with Tyenne and held Sarella on his arms while telling her stories of the sea.

He didn´t see Lyanna until twilight.

He went to knock on her door.

She was standing in the middle of her room, already half-dressed in traveling gear. She rocked and sang softly in words with a meaning Oberyn couldn´t quite grasp. It took him a moment to realize it was old tongue.

_She´s signing him lullabies from the first men._

“Lyanna” he said softly and clearly “the girls want to say goodbye to you”.

She raised her eyes. They were red and swollen. She looked at him for a moment and then smiled. Her ivory skin had turned a pale shade of bronze and it made her grey eyes pop out even more. They were clear today, as if the tears she had shed had clea1nsed them. Oberyn wondered how it was that her eyes changed their color. She looked like a goddess, a lost statue shaped by the hands of adoring pagans, her dark brown hair braided, a few strands of hair framing her face, her grey eyes deep, like infinite ponds, completely different from her son´s almost white eyes. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were red. Her skin didn´t seem hard now, but soft and warm, waiting, pleading to be touched, kissed and worshiped.

She had small freckels on her nose

_You are still angry at her._

“Come” she asked him “come and say goodbye to Jon”.

_She´s placing her son in danger on purpose._

He approached her quietly.

_I am angry._

_I am furious._

She placed Jon on his arms with infinite care.

He looked her straight into the eyes and watched as she recoiled from him. She took a step back and went to finish dressing up. She started to hide knifes in different places of her legs and adjusted all her straps. All in leather and cloth, she looked completely different from any fighter Oberyn had met. She looked more like a poacher than anything.

Oberyn looked down at the babe in his arms. He was calmed, quiet and observant. He looked straight into Oberyn´s eyes and fussed a little. Warmth invaded Oberyn again, just like it had when he had first picked him up. Jon closed his eyes and rested his head against Oberyn´s chest. He was so tiny, so fragile, and so young, at the same time a thousand years of wisdom seemed to lay behind his ice eyes. Oberyn placed a gentle kiss on his forehead and whispered beautiful nonsense to him in the Dornish dialect his mother used with him. Jon shifted and silently opened his little mouth. A quiet gasp came out of it.

Oberyn never had the chance to see his girls this young.

A babe this young was a mystery to him.

He didn´t, couldn´t know if what he had done just now was normal for babes to react to old tongues or to smile at  the voice of their parents.

He didn´t care.

“I´m gonna miss you babe” he whispered to him “even if I don´t really get to be close to you”.

He passed Jon to Lyanna and headed out.

“I´ll talk to Doran and then wait for you on the docks” he informed Lyanna “don´t take too long”.

“I won´t”.

*

He ended up talking to Doran on the docks. They stood on the edge, supposedly facing the ship that will take the warriors away from Dorne, back into the middle of the war.

“Are you sure?”

“I am Obe. It´ll take too long if we don´t do it this way. Besides, we need the curtain; we need everyone focusing their eyes as far away as possible”.

_Right._

“I need still one more thing from you, little brother”.

_You don´t say._

“I need you to promise you won´t say a word about this to her”.

Oberyn turned to watch Lyanna arrive, Mellario behind her.

“Of course I won´t”.

Mellario went to stand next to her husband and Doran signaled the old man. A small raft appeared in the circle of light casted by the torches Aero and another guard held.

“We´ll take very good care of the little cub, she wolf” Mellario said to her smiling.

“I´m sure you will” Lyanna said, more out of courtesy than anything.

“He will be with his sisters” Mellario said smiling “Oberyn´s little snakes already protect him as if he is one of them”.

Oberyn answered before anyone.

“He is”. Lyanna turned to him, her mouth already opened, preparing an answer.

“It´s time to go” Aero informed everyone “the night isn´t as young as it should be and the destination isn´t precisely close to us”.

They disappeared quickly into the darkness, the raft swinging along the waves pleasantly. He stood on the deck as they gathered more and more speed. Soon sleep would call him to his bed, but in that moment, as they started their journey, energy ran on his veins, every part of his body sizzled with anticipation.

Lyanna came to stand next to him silently.

She spoke after a moment

“I arrived in a similar way you know, smuggled in the middle of the night, my belly beginning to grow, making me look not bigger, but actually pregnant”.

Oberyn wondered how she felt in that moment, how she managed to travel all the distance between Kings Landing and Dorne to protect herself when she had just been raped.

“It is sort of nice to leave the same way. I like the symmetry; it is like I was never really here to begin with”.

She placed a hand on the wooden rail.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did” she answered.

“Humor me, will you”.

Lyanna looked up at him, she nodded slightly.

“Why did you name him Jon?”

_And here we go._

He wanted her to answer, he truly did, but he could see she feared his reaction.

He regretted the question.

“Did you ever think you loved me?” she asked him in return.

Oberyn shifted and he could almost feel her smile.

“That´s not an answer”.

_I´m not sure you´ll like the answer._

“Neither is that. Answer me Oberyn and I might answer you”.

Oberyn shifted again.

“I´m not sure I am able to love”.

She didn´t react to his answer.

“Love properly at least. Love like everybody else loves”.

Oberyn can feel her relax next to him.

“Can I tell you something?” she asked after a moment.

“Does that count as another question?”

“Asshole”.

“You kiss our son with that mouth?” he laughed “I will have to have a word with your brother about it”.

“I´ll like to see you try. Ned curses like a sailor when he´s angry enough”.

“We´re off track, please do tell me whatever you wanted to tell me”.

Lyanna smiled, growing a small shade of red.

“I was in love with Robert Baratheon once”.

Oberyn took the news silently, but he could tell she felt him growing stiffer.

“Is that so?”

“I wasn´t madly in love with him or anything like that, but when I was first told I was going to marry him, I kind of loved him. In my young childish mind I formed a picture of him that was perfect. In a idiotic way, I loved him, even thoug I didn´t know him. My Robert Baratheon was like a gush of fresh air, he was freedom and change, and everything I needed”.

_I see._

“Then I met him”.

Oberyn chuckled. 

"Was it the same with me?”

She didn’t even hesitate.

“No, with you was the other way around. I thought you were chains, but in reality you wanted to be left alone as much as I did. You, Prince Oberyn Martell, were a gust of fresh wind in this poor suffocating girl´s life, and for that I thank you”.

_Don´t talk about gratitude._

_Please don´t._

They watched the dark night silently.

“Why did you name him Jon?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes”.

“Because Jon is the name of the man that stopped me from killing you”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thannkyoouuuu verryyy muchhh for reading!! PLEASE COMMENT!!!! AND I REAAALLLYYYY HOPEEE YOU LIKED IT!!


	32. Ned V.

He´d known the battle was coming days before they even knew where the other army was. It had been a feeling that came deep from inside him and resonated in the air around him. It turned the slightest detail into the most important thing in the world and it made him extremely anxious, it filled him with energy, a force running inside him and preparing him to kill to survive.

Ned often wondered if wolves felt the same rush of life through them the second before they attacked their prey.

_This is the thrill of the hunt._

_I hope._

When the armies clashed at the river, all seemed to stop. All but his sword.

He had been with his men, hidden at the tree line when the black Targaryen soldiers clashed with the yellow Baratheon men. It was one of the most beautiful and terrible things he´d ever seen.

Death had filled the air and he had felt the impulse to growl at it.

_You won´t take me today._

He launched himself to the fight, and soon, a man had threatened him with his rusted sharpless sword. 

Ned had almost felt bad for him.

 But the man was covered in blood and had a mad expression on his face. He needed to be put down. His head had rolled off easily and suddenly a torrent of energy stronger than the river in front of him had been released.

His sword became red with blood and the world around him disappeared once again. It was only him and the man in front of him. Sometimes they were younger than him, other times they were older. There were fat men, skinny men, blonde ones, dark haired ones, tall, small, pale as him or pink, bearded ones and others who didn´t have a single hair above their mouths, nobles or common folk. It didn´t matter how they looked or who they were, they had only one thing in common, they were all going to die today.

_Every one of them._

Days ago, he had found himself holding the very embodiment of life in his hands.

Jon.

And now he was doing the exact opposite. He was taking life away from this world with his bare hands and his sword.

It wasn´t until he found himself tripping over a broken shield and falling to the wet land he realized what he was actually doing.

All around him, dead empty eyes watched as a battle that would never end for them raged on.

A boy, no older than Benjen, bled to death next to him. His colors where hidden by the red liquid pouring from his neck.

_Why are we doing this?_

Ned went to him and put his hands around the wound, pressing it, trying to stop the bleeding.

“It´s going to be fine” he lied to the boy, his scared brown eyes focusing on his grey ones.

_Did I do this?_

He didn´t remember.

The boy tried to utter a word, his hands rising up to grab Ned´s face. Maybe it was to hurt him, maybe to thank him. Ned would never know. A foot stomped on the boy´s face and his head exploded. He could taste the blood on his mouth; feel the flesh against his face.

He rose and looked around him.

Everywhere men fell, whole lives lost, destroyed, wasted in a meaningless struggle for power. When it all ended, when the crown was won, their enemies dead and their loved ones safe, who would remember the fallen soldiers?

The King would blame the war on the other side and would justify his own atrocities in the name of justice, of righteousness.

_But who´ll be left to be ruled over?_

Thousands of dead corpses and a few scarred men, filled with disgust and guilt over surviving when their friends, their brothers, hadn´t.

Ned wanted them to stop. He wanted to scream at them that they weren´t winning their place with the gods, but sinking themselves on the deepest of hells.

Reality.

But no one would listen to him; no one would even notice him. They just ignored him as he tried to save them. No one could dare to notice him. They were too busy trying to secure their next breath, trying to ensure their own survival, and suddenly, so was Ned.

He had to reach them, for some bizarre reason, he needed to witness how it would all end. And so slowly, as respectfully as he could, he continued to kill. His animalistic impulse gone, his energy had dissolved itself on the wasted blood.

He kicked a man that stood next to him and as gently as he could, placed his sword through his neck. He moved on to another man, who was standing alone, his back to Ned, sadly, he was standing on his way to them. Ned quietly went through him. Soon, he was covered in more wet blood, it didn´t mattered the fact that he´d tried to spill less blood than the others; he was still dripping in other men´s blood.

But he had done what he wanted to.

He was at the river´s shore.

They were right in front of him, where the clear waters of the river and the dark red blood mixed, they stood.

Robert was wearing a gigantic armor that made him look like one of the giants he had told Jon about. He was all strength and fury, his hammer going from side to side, violently ripping the air around him. Rhaegar was, as always, the dark prince, the blood colored dragon in his armor seemingly moving with him. His movements where fast and elegant, and there was a deadly beauty to them. Yet he wasn´t filled with the urgency Robert was. The crown prince moved almost as if he was being forced to, he allowed Robert to get closer and closer to him, only moving out of his way at the last minute. He lacked the urge to live Ned was sure Robert was feeling as they fought.

_He wants to be defeated._

He was fighting only out of respect for the other men that fought that battle.

Rage filled Ned; Rhaegar was the only one to blame for the lives lost and the blood wasted.

He was the only one to blame for everything.

_Lyanna._

_Brandon._

_Father._

_Every boy laying cold and every mother who would never get to see their child again._

_You should´ve given up._

_You could´ve stopped this._

_You could´ve kept their blood from being spilled._

Rhaegar suddenly turned away from Robert, his eyes focusing on his feet.

_Don´t you dare._

_Fight like the man you are believed to be._

Robert didn´t seem to realize Rhaegar was giving up.

He struck him on the shoulder with his giant hammer.

Rhaegar fell to his knees.

_Get up._

_Get up you piece of shit._

_Make everything worth it._

_Don´t you dare give up._

But in the end, he did give up.

Rhaegar fell to the river and Robert struck him again.

Ned saw him die, he saw him whisper the name before his last breath.

_It is done._

Ned turned away from the river.

He faced north and began walking.

He wouldn´t stop until he reached north.

_It is finally done._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii, I almost didn´t post this, but here we are!!! We are very close to the end now, but not just quite there. Anyway, Thank you for reading, please comment and I hope you liked it!!


	33. Lyanna XI

They entered the city quietly, maybe passing unnoticed o maybe ignored through one of the plugholes near the Mud Gate. None of the men that accompanied her and Oberyn complained, nor did the women and Lyanna found herself surprised. She´d entered and left the city four times through this passages and channels, and even though the smell did bother her, she felt relatively at ease walking through the rat infested and foul smelling, dark corridors. She didn´t think they would, though, and their silence was a companion she hadn´t counted on.

The walked silently, their steps barely noticeable and the only torch, the one she carried, soundlessly crackling, barely lighting the path that she made them take.

But it didn´t matter.

Outside the city, the Lannister army readied themselves for a battle and all eyes where there. That meant that all the high born ladies where together and all the able fighting men were at the Dragon Gate, observing and railing their troops for the possible battle that awaited them.

_Not if we can help it._

Once they left the sewers and their humid stench, entering the Red Keep´s catacombs, they began the difficult part.

In theory, what they were supposed to do was retrieve all the high Lords and Ladies Aery´s had in his court to either rescue them, as Doran had promised their family´s they would, or to take them as hostages, forcing the remaining royalists to accept the winner at the trident. But theory and reality were far away from each other, and Lyanna was counting on that.

The news of Rhaegar´s dead had been delivered to her unceremoniously, while they ate at a tavern in the port the ship had dropped them off, about four days ago. A man had entered the smoke filled and humid dining room and screamed that the dragon prince was dead, that Robert Baratheon had killed him and that he was marching to King´s Landing.

Somebody had screamed that they didn´t care and Lyanna had looked Oberyn right in the eyes.

“We need to hurry”.

The title of widow, as Oberyn had latter called her, fell on her like cleansing waters.

She had found Oberyn late that night, silently watching the stars.

She´d had the impulse to tell him everything.

She´d stayed silent.

The impulse had come and gone.

“So you´re a widow now” he had greeted her “congratulations”.

Lyanna hadn´t answered him.

She didn´t want him to understand and was too afraid that her voice would betray her.

Rhaegar´s death at the hands of Robert had been an inconvenience, but it didn´t deter her in any way from her real objective, the one she´d silently promised Ned, the one she´d told Jon in the middle of the night, while he slept in her arms, peaceful as can be, the one she whispered to herself at every breathing moment, a prayer of sorts to her gods.

_I´ll kill them all._

She hated Rhaegar for what he´d done to her, but, as they´d slowly traveled to King´s Landing, she´d realized it wasn´t him who´d caused everything. Rhaegar was nothing more than a pawn in the game, wielded by his mad father, and wolves’ didn´t went after the weakest when they felt attacked. They went after the leader, the real threat.

_No mad dragon is going near my pup._

_No mad dragon is going to live enough to even pronounce his name._

But killing them wasn´t what they were supposed to do. She´d heard Doran loud and clear.

_No going near the mad King._

_No spilling any more royal blood._

But wolves’ didn´t listen to snakes.

“So” she said before the final door, the one that would lead them to the base of the tower where the nobles slept “we first gather the women and then the men. We need to make sure we have both Cersei and Tyrion Lannister, we can´t risk Tywin turning on us”.

Everyone nodded.

She smiled.

“Let´s do this”.

They ran silently through the dark and abandoned corridors. Not a soul coming to meet them, but it wasn´t her who led the small group. Oberyn had taken the lead and guided them through the Red Keep.

They reached the courtyard where Maegor´s Holdfast was and watched how it was a white cloaked man the one who guarded the entrance.

_So you allowed him to keep me locked up._

_You are to blame as well._

“He´s mine” she whispered to Oberyn.

He nodded.

Lyanna ran straight to him, not caring how stupid it was, how easy it would´ve been for him to give the alarm.

Her knife sunk easily into his neck.

His death tasted sweet on her mouth.

It was Ser Gerold Hightower.

_The white bull._

She ran inside the smaller fortress and felt an arrow passing right next to her, only to end up in the neck of another guard, a golden cloaked one. They entered the Queen´s Ballroom room only to found them all gaged and tied up.

The strong smell of wild fire hit her and she almost felt to the ground.

Everyone passed running next to her, she felt air whoosh around her as the passed her.

She tried to move, but she was frozen.

_The rope tied her up again._

_Rickard didn´t move an inch._

_The heat caressed her violently._

_Her tears evaporated from her cheeks and the smell of burned hair and fabric surrounded her._

_She hoped it was only that she smelled._

_Between the smoke and the tears, she saw him struggle._

_BRANDON, PLEASE STOP._

_PLEASE BROTHER, JUST STOP._

_Tears slid through her face and she wanted only to rest with them._

_She wanted to die._

“LYANNA” Oberyn screamed at her “LYANNA THEY ARE NOT HERE”.

She focused on him.

_They are in the throne room._

She knew, she just didn´t tell him, because he didn´t ask.

He held tightly onto her arm.

“You better fucking come out of that alive Lyanna” he whispered to her “or I swear I´ll fucking kill you”.

She placed a small, chaste kiss on his lips.

He smiled against her.

“Go”.

And she went.

Fear crept on her as she ran.

_What if he lights them up?_

_What if I freeze again?_

She answered herself calmly.

_You´ll fail. And that´s just not acceptable._

The doors to the throne room where open, and he was sitting on his throne. Cersei was sitting on top of him and he held a knife to her throat.

His mad eyes where only on her, on her dark dressed figure and on the thin line of blood that sled down her neck and into her bosom.

All the light was gone, except for a small fire burning, at the exact same place where her Father had burned, at his feet. It was very small, contained in a circular metal plate.

She tightened her grip on her dagger.

_You are not going to scare me._

“You are going to die” she screamed to him “and you are going to freeze in hell, away from your pretty little flames”.

He threw Cersei away and Lyanna saw her fall next to a form she assumed it was her brother, the imp.

Aerys kicked the fire and suddenly, the room was lit.

She was surrounded by fire, and he stood in the middle of it.

“Come to me” he mocked her “come to me little She-wolf”.

She was frozen.

She was going to fail.

He was going to kill her.

 _But..._ she whispered to herself, _but..._

_This is not for him._

She took one step into the flames.

They engulfed her and surrounded her as if she was in the middle of the ocean.

_This is for Father._

She came out to breathe.

She started to run.

Even the air burned her.

Her hands already had blisters and she felt how her clothes burned her legs.

_This is for Brandon._

_For Eddard._

_For Benjen._

_For Jon._

She stood in front of him, in front of his throne.

He smiled, twisted, crazy, filled with hate and madness.

He tried to lit himself on fire.

The flames almost engulfed him and she could only distinguish his eyes, the mad eyes that had caused her to lose everything, to become what she was.

“This is for me” she said as she pushed him backwards and sunk her knife into whatever flesh she could.

Her embrace had smothered his flames, but the ones in front of her were beginning to grow larger and larger.

She didn´t care.

She sat on his blood stained throne.

Hell was in front of her, flames almost reaching the second floor and yet, the swords and the throne were cold.

Oberyn appeared in front of her, half hidden by the smoke and the fire.

She locked her eyes on to him.

She smiled.

Aerys Targaryen laid half burned at her feet, his blood slowly advancing towards the flames, his face twisted in a grin of pleasure and pain.

“Obe, tell Lord Tywin Lannister that the King is dead and that the Red Keep is ours”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOO sorry, I failed, but as you can see, this will end this afternoon. I´ll post the next chapter (and final) right away and the epilogue when I get home. I hope you like it, please comment and thank you for reading.


	34. Cersei III and Lyanna XII

Cersei Lannister wore golden and crimson for her wedding. Her father held her hand tightly as she approached the high septon´s altar. Not a sign of the disgust or the rage he had directed at her for the last few days. He was stone dead serious, his face inscrutable as he lead her trough the crowded church. She recognized many faces, though she´d never seen them at court, Lords and Ladies of the Storm Lands and the North, nobles who though they had a place at King´s Landing now that Robert Baratheon sat on the iron throne.

 _Fools_.

The last name of the king might´ve changed, but the people in power didn´t. The new comers had as much place on this court as they had before.

On the row nearest to the altar, her brother waited.

Her disgusting little imp of a brother that had somehow found out.

_The valonqar._

Robert waited for her on the altar, the crown on his head and the dashing beauty all there.

Yet it was all wrong.

She was supposed to marry the silver dragon prince, not the dark stag king.

_But does it matter in the end?_

She´d technically gotten everything she´d asked for.

_Even more._

She wouldn´t have to wait to be queen, the power already there, just waiting for her to wield it. She´d have a strong and healthy husband, the man every girl at Westeros dreamed of having and it was hers by right. Her future children won´t have the ghost of their mad grandfather hunting them and would be born into everything she´d ever dreamed for herself.

“Jaime would´ve been proud” she mumbled as she left her father´s grasp and came into Robert´s strong and steady one.

Her voice didn´t even shake when she said it this time.

The lie was beginning to feel like truth on her mouth.

She smelled the alcohol on him right after the Septon began to talk.

She tasted the wine on his lips when the chaste kiss came.

It felt like heaven.

As they both turned, her new name being announced, she saw her in the crowd, next to her brother and the Red Viper. Near her were Varys and Ser Lewyn, the men that had helped her new husband win the war.

Traitors, she wanted to spat at them, hate filling her for a moment, even if she was one of them.

She hadn´t thought she would dislike Robert as much as she did. Once again, it was all so wrong, just because he wasn´t there next to her.

Because he wasn´t the one who she belonged to.

She forced herself to look back at her husband, playing the role of the devoted wife to the wrong man the gods had assigned to her.

He was watching the She-Wolf as well.

He didn´t hate her, Cersei could see that, but he was furious with her.

It was obvious.

Cersei Lannister smiled, half happy already.

_He´s as miserable as I am._

She turned to Robert and kissed him again before going down the stairs.

She almost wished the babe inside her was his.

*

Weddings, Lyanna found out, were much wilder than coronations.

When Robert Baratheon had left the high septon, the new golden crown on his head and rode all the way to the Red Keep and the Iron throne he´d just won, the entire city had been expectant. Solemnity had filled the air and when the moment came and the crowd of commoners was supposed to cheer for their new king, they had done it almost reluctantly, their shouts not as happy or as natural as they should´ve been.

 _They are all scared_ , Lyanna had thought, _the war is over and they are still scared_.

But when King Robert left the high septon with his blushing bride, Cersei Lannister, who some said was fairer than the first Rhaenys herself, while others said that she resembled the holy Maid, the shouts and cheers that left the people´s lips had resonated all the way to the city´s walls and for a moment their sound had drowned the bells that rung on the back.

The feast had been the same exact story.

Everyone laughed, drank and ate like it was their last night on earth.

Empty happiness and energy had filled the rooms of the Red Keep.

All of the guests smiled and talked, but their manners were forced, their joy false.

Nervous glances had gone form the silent drinking King to the young woman that sat next to Oberyn Martell and the men near them, all exotic Dornish Lords sent by Doran Martell, who had excused himself saying that the death of his sister still affected him and that he did not wish to see the place where she had burned to death.

When the time for dancing came Lyanna stood alone, leaving Oberyn with his men and went to dance with Lord Varys.

Thankfully, everybody was too drunk to notice.

“Lady Wolf” the man said while they danced “your beauty has no equal tonight”.

Lyanna wore a blue soft dress, black wolves carefully drawn on the fabric.

It was simple dress, too simple even for a normal day at court, it wasn´t even made of silk. She had her hair on a simple braid and wore no jewels.

_I look a bit better than a commoner._

_But thank you for your lie._

“You are mistaken my lord” she answered “it´s our new Queen´s beauty that has no equal tonight. I disappear like the morning stars in the presence of the sun when she even looks my way”.

Varys smiled.

_Now enough of this nonsense._

“You lie, Lady Wolf” he answered “you lie as you did when we walked in the darkness”.

“You mean when you helped me escape this castle only if I promised to come back and help the Targaryen cause or do you mean the time when I came to you after being raped and you made me promise that I would bring no harm to the Targaryen house?”

Varys looked around, fear almost showing on his face. No one was even near enough to hear them.

“Both, Lady Wolf” he answered relaxed as ever.

Lyanna smiled.

“Are you sad because there won´t be a salamander cooking up on the steel oven?”

“Yes” he answered, not minding her mocking tone “I´ve come to realize even the worse of salamanders is still taste better that any bull”.

“But my lord, I fear you pass judgment on the bull too quickly, and for what I seem to realize, the meal might´ve changed, but not the cook. I always thought that in these matters is the cook, not the meal, which makes the difference”.

Varys chuckled.

“We´ll see Lady Wolf” he answered “we´ll just have to see”.

*

At night the both stared at dark sea, her head once again resting on his shoulder.

It seemed like a lifetime ago when she did that. It had just been the night before.

They shared bedchambers, in spite of everyone´s judgmental looks.

“So what are you going to do now?” Oberyn asked.

“Get him away, as far as possible” Lyanna answered “I´ll go back for him and I set off to the end of the world, just to keep him safe.”

“Can I come with?”

“You never give up, do you?”

“Is that a no?”

“No” she whispered, turning to him.

“Then is that a yes?”

“No”.

They stayed silent for a moment.

“Oberyn…” she asked him.

“Yes?” he answered drawing small circles on her bare shoulder.

“Marry me”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOOOO this is the final chapter. I hope you liked it, the epilogue comes in a few hours. This has been a hell of a ride and I wanted to thank every and each one of you for commenting, Kuddoing (I really don´t know how to wright it) and just generally, reading this big mess of a fan fic. I hope you liked my fanfic and that you enjoyed reading it. Thank very much and just thank you again.  
> PS. This one goes to H (who is OP) and Sol, just cause I promised I would.


	35. Epilogue: Jon

Jon Martell sat at the table alone, enjoying the few minutes of peace and silence before his brothers and sisters woke up.

On his lap, his direwolf pup, Ghost, watched with desiring eyes the sausage he´d picked up.

_I just cut it._

Big red gleaming eyes watched him.

_Fine._

He smiled “have it”.

He patted the white pup´s head and picked a piece of fruit. At least he wouldn´t want fruit.

As the warm rays of sunlight entered the solar, one by one –or in Aidan and Iain´s case two- his brothers and sisters began to appear, picking up some food and sleepily conversing with him and then leaving, each to do whatever they wanted.

It seemed like any other day at the Water Gardens.

Except it wasn’t.

_Today they are coming back._

Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Stark traveled often, they had visited half the world before Jon turned ten. They had gone to Pentos and Qarth twice, Bravoss at least three times, Myr was often in their routes, they had briefly visited the Slave Bay and it´s cities; Mereen, Ghys, and Yunkai, they had spent almost an entire season with a Khalassar, where his mother had befriended Khal Biurak and according to bad tongues, he had fathered her fourth son, his brother Torrenh Martell.

They had visited the North where Jon had met his cousins, the Stark children of the north. It turned out he had a Tully looking cousin, Robb, who had quickly become one of his best friends and he had almost visited them in Dorne once, until his mother had fallen pregnant again. He also remembered his little cousin, Arya, who had been three at the time. She had been all knees and elbows, long Stark face and his mother´s attitude.

“Southerner” she had said to him clearly as an insult.

“Northerner” he had spat back.

She was like a sister to him.

His mother had loved Arya and had almost suggested to have her fostered in Dorne. But she´d been too little at the time to be sent away.

They´d even traveled as a far as the Wall and beyond, but for a short period of time because his father Oberyn, had as he had himself put it, “ _hated the fucking ice and no wonder you are all so weird you seem to be enjoying this. I hate this fucking winter and I´m tired of frozen food can we please just go?”_

They´d met an old friend of his mother, a wildling man called Ragnar son of Ragnar, who, rumor had it, again, was the father of his twin brothers, Aidan and Iain.

They´d met with Ragnar´s group of wildlings and traveled through the frozen forest with them –and of course, a Night´s Watch party that included their uncle Benjen- making their way from Black Castle to the frozen shore which in summer was a rather short journey.

Jon had loved every second of it.

Saying Lyanna and Oberyn often traveled might´ve been an understatement, but saying they never traveled with their children was a plain lie.

This was the first time they´d left without them.

And no one knew why.

Obara, Nymeria, Tyene and Sarella had always been with them, Aidan and Iain had actually been born on Bravoss when they were on their way back from the North, and they had barely reached Dorne when Lyanna entered in labor with Torrhen.

Only Brandon and Elia had been conceived and born in Dorne.

Everybody knew this because Lyanna wasn´t technically Elia´s mother.

Ellaria Sand was.

People assumed she was his father´s paramour, but in fact, she kind of was with the two of them.

 _To hell with coustoms,_ his mother had said to him when she explained why Elia was living with them to Jon; _we have a right to pursuit pleasure and happiness, as long as we don´t hurt others, Jon._

Lyanna Stark might´ve been born on Winterfell, but she´d become very accustomed to Dornish ways.

It had been she the one who had first brought Ellaria home, claiming her as her lover, she´d even kissed Ellaria in front of the entire court, just to make that point clear.

Jon had been standing next to his father when it had happened.

Oberyn had just smirked, as happy as a man could be.

“I love your mother Jon” he had said “I fucking love that woman”.

“I know” he had answered.

Anyways, this was a special day because, for the first time in twenty one years, Lyanna Stark and Oberyn Martell had traveled alone, not even taking Ellaria with them.

Truth was, they´d just gone Highgarden, to visit the Tyrells, but it had been a pretty big deal when they´d announced to everybody-all ten of their sons and daughters- that this time they´ll be traveling alone.

Jon wondered if he would soon have another baby brother.

Lyanna Stark, someone had said once, only gave birth to boys.

 _Not boys_ , Jon remembered his mother had answered, _I give birth to wolves._

_Wolves of Dorne._

Their day went about as usual. Jon helped Nymeria to train both Bran and Elia, then Torrhen and Sarella had taught them their lesson, to finally have them both sleeping next to Ellaria early in the afternoon.

Iain and Aidan had then rode off to the nearest smuggling port, where they would buy gods knew what with gods knew what purposes and he had spent the rest of the afternoon sparing with Obara and Nymeria.

Finally, after a rather peaceful lunch, they had all headed down to the ocean pools and he had taught little Ghost to swim in front of every single one of his jealous brothers.

Uncle Ned had given Ghost to him on his last visit to Winterfell, less than a year ago, when his mother and he had simply decided they wanted to go. They hadn´t asked any of his brothers or sisters if they wanted to go.

 _You don´t just go and waste summer on the North, that´s just plain stupid,_ they had been told more than once when they made such questions.

Jon smiled sheepishly as the afternoon came to a slow and tranquil end.

How peaceful things were when neither the Red Viper nor the She-Wolf where home.

Lyanna and Oberyn arrived as twilight broke, looking tired and dirty and happy.

_Too happy._

They had laughed and smiled, told everybody how boring it had been and how many times Oberyn had had to apologize to Willas Tyrell in front of his grandmother, the Queen of Thorns, a woman Oberyn described as _almost as scary as your mother_ and that Lyanna said was just _the most charming woman you´ll ever have the pleasure of meting_.

They had eaten, fought and talked into well entered the night. Laughs had filled the halls and Brandon and Elia had fallen asleep on their father´s arms.

When silence filled his parents’ solar, Jon returned.

He silently enjoyed the peaceful tiredness that came after his father and mother, slowly rocking Ghost to sleep.

Lyanna came in silently, her steps barely adudible.

His mother ruffled his hair before sitting down in front of him.

Of all her children, Jon was the one that looked most like her, and yet he was the most different in personality, only having in common with her the preference for northern steel and northern way of fighting. That was why he was probably the son she got along with the easiest.

“Has uncle Tyrion written?” his mother asked him absently, while she slowly undid her usual travelling braid and began do it again. They'd often travelled with him. Oberyn liked the Lannister man quite a lot.

Jon watched her before answering.

His mother was beautiful, wild looking and rare among the dark tanned Dornish women he was used to. Her pale face was always fresh and her eyes seemed to drink it all in, she looked so much younger than she really was, but he still caught a couple of silver lines on her hair.

“Not since you left” he answered “I think he´s still in Pentos”.

“Pentos is too hot on summer” was his mother’s only answer.

They fell silent for a moment.

“Why did you really leave?” he asked his mother quietly as he placed Ghost on a pillow next to him.

Lyanna smiled.

“Nothing ever escapes you pup, does it?”

_It´s Wandering Wolf now._

_Like your grandfather._

All of the Wolves of Dorne had inherited Stark´s nicknames. They still had to make their own.

Lyanna didn´t answer.

“So?” he continued.

“Doran said the Bitch of Thorns was saying some nasty things that needed to be silenced”.

“About what?”

Lyanna looked at him, her age suddenly growing ten years.

“About you pup. About what your last name really is”.

Jon knew the story.

_It´s Jon Snow._

_Maybe Jon Sand._

_But it is definitely not Jon Martell._

He didn´t care.

His mother wasn´t married to his Father when he had been born. They had married more than just days later after Jon´s birth, more than even weeks. It was supposed to be a secret, but people talked and in their loose tongues lied the danger. It was the reason they´d spent his early years away, hoping everyone would forget. It seemed they hadn´t.

“And so I went there to shut her mouth for her while your father watched. Or was it the other way around?”

“What did you do?” he asked.

“We kindly told her she could shut her political scheming mouth or we would shut it for her”.

_That sounds like you._

Jon smiled.

“It wasn´t only about that pup” his mother continued “Doran sent us there to test us. Both of us”.

There was a pause. Jon knew what she was going to say.

“He wants Oberyn and me to occupy our place at the small council”.

_Shit._

“He wants you to go to King´s Landing” he finished for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINAL CHAPTER. THANK YOU ALL, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT AS MUCH AS I DID!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the bad grammar and spelling. English isn´t my first language. I wanted to write this story, partly cause I ship Oberyn and Lyanna and cause I always wondered what would´ve happened if Lyanna was caught as the Knight of the Laughing tree.


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